CHRISTINE SCHÄFER

Christine Schäfer studied at the Berlin Conservatory with Professor Ingrid Figur, the late Arleen Augér, Aribert Reimann, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Sena Jurinac and has gone on to develop a successful international opera, concert, recital and recording career.
Christine Schäfer’s diverse opera credits include the roles of Konstanze, Ilia, Lulu and Cherubino at the Salzburg Festival; Konstanze, Gilda and Sophie at Covent Garden; Lulu at the Met marking her house début; the Angel in Messiaen’s St. François d’Assise at the Paris Bastille, Pamina and Handel’s Cleopatra for De Nederlandse Opera, Sophie in San Francisco and Berlin’s Deutsche Oper; Lulu at the Glyndebourne and Innsbruck Festivals and Handel’s Alcina for Stockholm’s famous Drottningholm Festival; Zdenka in Houston; Zerbinetta in Munich as well as Pierrot Lunaire with Boulez in both Berlin and at the Chatelet.  An ongoing relationship with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin recently brought Christine Schäfer’s role debut as Verdi’s Violetta in a new production by Peter Mussbach, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

With an impressively wide-ranging concert repertoire spanning works from baroque through contemporary, Christine Schäfer enjoys a flourishing concert career with regular appearances on the major concert stages of Europe and America.  Ms. Schäfer has a long-standing co-operation with many of today’s pre-eminent conductors including Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Boulez, Christoph Eschenbach and Sir Simon Rattle.

After a successful 1988 recital début at the Berlin Festival singing Aribert Reimann's Nachträume, Christine Schäfer has gone on to develop an international recital career, making regular tours of North America and Japan, and frequent appearances at such renowned venues as New York’s Alice Tully Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein.  As part of the inaugural Ruhr Triennale in 2002, Christine Schäfer presented her highly-acclaimed interpretation of Schubert’s Winterreise in a staging by the late Oliver Hermann. 

A much-recorded artist, Christine Schäfer's discography includes Konstanze in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Les Arts Florissants/William Christie (Erato); a collection of Mozart arias and R.Strauss orchestral songs with the Berlin Philharmonic/Abbado, Bach’s Wedding Cantatas with Musica Antiqua Köln/Goebel, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Boulez’ Pli selon Pli with the Ensemble Intercontemporain/Boulez and, a recital disc of Debussy and Chausson, accompanied by Irwin Gage, all for Deutsche Grammophon.  Some earlier recordings include Haydn’s Creation with Rilling, Reimann's Nachträume and Kinderlieder, Bach's St John’s Passion with the Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben, Mozart Canzonettas with the wind ensemble of the BPO/Fischer-Dieskau as well as Schubert and Schumann Lieder as part of Graham Johnson's acclaimed series for Hyperion.  Christine Schaefer also features on a number of recordings with Nikolaus Harnoncourt including Bach St. Matthew Passion and Mozart Missa Breves (Teldec), Mozart Requiem and Handel Messiah (SONY/BMG).

In 2006 opera projects include Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro and La Traviata for the Opera National de Paris, Alcina for De Nederlanse Opera, as well as Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival.  In concert, Christine Schäfer performs at Paris’ Palais Garnier with Salonen, at Vienna’s Musikverein and Munich’s Herkulessaal with Harnoncourt, on tour with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Haitink, at the Berlin Philharmonie with Boulez and with the Munich Philharmonic under Thielemann.

Eric Schneider

Hailing from the Bergische Land near Cologne, the pianist - grandson of the author Albrecht Schaeffer, who emigrated to the United States in 1939 - begged for piano lessons at the age of five. Music, for the youngest of four boys, provided its own special realm.

During piano studies at the Cologne Musikhochschule a strong passion for musical communication with the audience grew within him. After winning prizes at competitions and first solo recitals he discovered a pervasive enthusiasm for the German lied. Schneider completed his studies in vocal accompaniment with Hartmut Höll. The celebrated singers Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau served as essential and inspiring teachers. He took acting lessons and completed a conducting course with Rolf Reuter at the Hanns Eisler conservatory in Berlin while gathering experience teaching singers and pianists at a number of German music colleges. He established intensive and fruitful partnerships with singers such as Christiane Oelze, Christine Schäfer, Stephan Genz and Matthias Goerne. He can be heard in concert halls around the world. Numerous recordings - recently Franz Schubert's “Winterreise” with Christine Schäfer - document his career.

Eric Schneider's success rests on his particular ability to merge piano and voice as intended by the great lied composers. Partnerships with outstanding singers afforded him opportunity to perfect the extraordinary range of tonal quality and ardency in his piano playing. His artistic accomplishment having matured in a long series of lied recitals, he is now again devoting particular attention to his solo repertoire.