ÍøÆغÚÁÏ

Conductor Donald Runnicles has been equally active in opera and concert music in Europe and the U.S. He has amassed a large recording catalog with the various major ensembles he has led.

Runnicles was born on November 16, 1954, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was a furniture supply company director who also played the organ and directed a choir. Runnicles attended George Heriot's School in Edinburgh and then moved to George Watson's College, which offered music courses. He studied music at the University of Edinburgh and St. John's College, Cambridge, going on for further studies at the London Opera Centre. He worked as a vocal coach in Mannheim, Germany, and became Generalmusikdirector of the city of Freiburg, Germany, in 1989. Runnicles soaked up the German operatic tradition, and he worked mostly as an opera conductor for the first years of his career. In 1990, he conducted Wagner's Ring Cycle with the San Francisco Opera, and two years later, he was appointed the company's music director. He remained in that post through 2009 and has remained active as a guest conductor. Runnicles made his recording debut in 1994 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, leading Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel; that album appeared on the Teldec label, and Runnicles was associated with that label for many years.

After the turn of the century, Runnicles was active increasingly often as a conductor of instrumental music. From 2001 to 2007, he was the principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York. From 2009 to 2016, Runnicles served as the chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He became the principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2001, continuing to hold that position as of the early 2020s through the tenures of several music directors. Runnicles became the music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Colorado in 2005, and he continued to hold that position as of the early 2020s as well. In 2007, Runnicles was appointed Generalmusikdirektor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, assuming the podium in 2009; his contract there has been extended through 2027. Runnicles has a large recording catalog, much of it made with the above-named groups. In addition to Telarc, he has recorded for major labels such as Decca, Hyperion, and Sony Classical. He moved to Reference Recordings in 2023, leading the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in support of pianist Garrick Ohlsson in the complete piano concertos of Beethoven. ~ James Manheim

Known primarily for her many performances in operas by Mozart and Richard Strauss, Swedish soprano Maria Bengtsson has also distinguished herself in the concert hall. Born in Trelleborg into a family of musicians, Bengtsson was raised in Höllviken, where she received training in piano and choral singing. She attended high school in Malmö, followed by studies at the Musikhochschule Freiburg from 1995 to 2000, where her principal teacher was Beata Heuer-Christen, and she subsequently joined the Wiener Volksoper in 2000. Soon after, she sang at the Komische Oper Berlin, where she was cast in productions until 2007, notably singing the role of Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and returning in 2009 to sing the title role in Gluck's Armide. Other roles have included Lauretta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, the Governess in Britten's The Turn of the Screw, Elettra in Mozart's Idomeneo, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. She also sang the part of the Marschallin in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, the title role in Daphne, and the Countess in Capriccio, as well as the lead in Arabella. She has performed at major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House in London, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, the Bavarian State Opera and the Staatsoper Berlin, and she has appeared with leading conductors, such as Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, John Eliot Gardiner, Bertrand de Billy, Simone Young, Marc Minkowski, Philippe Jordan, Antonio Pappano, and Vladimir Jurowski. She also performed in the Elbphilharmonie's opening concert in 2017, where she sang in Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2, "Lobgesang." ~ Blair Sanderson