Jörg Schneider, born at Berlin in 1966, has been a member of the Rundfunkchor Berlin since 1989.
Having spent some time as a keyboard artist, guitarist and songwriter for several bands during his teenage years, he attended Berlin’s Hanns Eisler College of Music from 1986 to 1990 to study voice with Gerhard Eisenmann and composition and counterpoint with Wolfgang Hohensee and Gerhard Tittel. He underwent further training with Alois Orth and subsequently with Rudolf Piernay and Thomas Quasthoff. While still a student, the young singer began to appear extensively in concerts both as a soloist and as a member of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, performing in many European countries and in the United States.
Career highlights at the Rundfunkchor include the baritone solo in Brahms’s “Deutsches Requiem” under Robin Gritton, Brander in Berlioz’s “La Damnation de Faust” under Kent Nagano, Stravinskys “Mass” under Sir Simon Rattle, Hans Werner Henze’s Symphony No. 9 under Ingo Metzmacher, and the second prisoner in Beethoven’s “Fidelio” under Heinrich Schiff, Michael Schønwandt and Marek Janowski. In April 2005 he will sing the baritone part in Carl Orff’s „Carmina burana“ in the sing-along concert of the Rundfunkchor, which will take place at Berlin’s Philharmonie with over 1000 performers.
Apart from his work for the Rundfunkchor the versatile singer is pursuing an extensive solo career as a concert and oratorio singer. His repertoire extends from Monteverdi’s Vespers via the sacred works of Heinrich Schütz right to contemporary pieces. Of particular interest to him are the cantatas, masses and oratorios of Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn und Felix Mendelssohn. Jörg Schneider sang the bass solo in Bach’s cantata “Ein feste Berg ist unser Gott“ with the Thomanerchor under Georg Christoph Biller and the part of Jesus in revivals of various passion oratorios by Georg Philipp Telemann in Magdeburg.
An avid reader of poetry, Schneider takes a keen interest in the relationship between text and music. So it was only natural for him to explore the lieder repertoire step by step, adding at least one new programme each year. He has sung the well-known cycles of Schubert, Schumann and Wolf, but also works by Schoenberg, Eisler and Shostakovich (the Michelangelo songs in the original language). He gives special attention to rediscovering and studying the music of German composers who were Jewish and persecuted by the Nazi regime. For example, Schneider gave the first European performance of Eric Zeisel’s “Mondbilder” on the basis of the manuscript and performed songs written by the singer and composer Karel Berman at Theresienstadt.
On top of this, Schneider has composed songs of his own with piano accompaniment as well as chamber music. At the Expo 2000 exhibition in Hannover he participated in a European-Asian musical dialogue as a singer and composer. The baritone is a member of the ensemble Berlin-Shanghai Dialog der Klänge grouped around the Berlin saxophone player Gert Anklam and the Chinese Sheng virtooso Wu Wi (for details see www.anklang.de) as well as the Melodie Masters, a vocal quintet drawn from members of the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor which presents the repertoire of the Comedian Harmonists in original arrangements (for details see www.berlincomedionists.de).
The characteristics of the Rundfunkchor Berlin which Jörg Schneider prizes most highly are the spirit of togetherness, the wide-ranging repertoire, the warm sound, the precision, the work with the world’s best conductors and orchestras and the opportunity to combine his profession with his third hobby (apart from music and literature): travelling. For further information visit the website www.joerg-schneider-bariton.de.
