Christa Bonhoff
Encyclopedia
Professional career
Christa Bonhoff was born in WestphaliaWestphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
. Sie studied singing at the Hochschule für Musik Hamburg
Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg
The Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg is one of the larger universities of music in Germany.It was founded 1950 as Staatliche Hochschule für Musik on the base of the former private acting school of Annemarie Marks-Rocke and Eduard Marks.Studies include various music types from church music...
with Annie Schoonus. Already as a student she joined the choir NDR Chor and worked as a guest for the Hamburgische Staatsoper. She has concentrated on singing in oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s.
She was the soloist in recordings of Bach's Christmas Oratorio
Christmas Oratorio
The Christmas Oratorio BWV 248, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 incorporating music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a...
(2002) and St John Passion (2006) with the conductor Michaela Prentl, the SebastianChor, Hubert Nettinger as the Evangelist
Evangelist (Bach)
The Evangelist in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is the tenor part in his oratorios and Passions who narrates the exact words of the Bible, translated by Martin Luther, in recitative, namely in the works St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, and the Christmas Oratorio, also in the St Mark...
, Gerlinde Sämann
Gerlinde Sämann
Gerlinde Sämann is a German soprano known for her performances in concerts and operas. She is particularly associated with the works of Johann Sebastian Bach...
, Thomas Hamberger and Tim Hennis.
In 2002 she founded together with Monika Frimmer
Monika Frimmer
- Professional career :Monika Frimmer studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover in Hannover. She studied further in master-classes and worked with Birgit Nilsson, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Jörg Demus...
, Dantes Diwiak
Dantes Diwiak
Dantes Diwiak is a tenor, who grew up and has worked mostly in Germany.- Professional career :Dantes Diwiak studied singing with Klaus Kirchner and opera at the Musikhochschule Hannover with Theo Altmeyer. He took master classes with Hermann Reutter, Birgit Nilsson, Helmuth Rilling and Scot Weir...
and Peter Kooy
Peter Kooy
Peter Kooy is a Dutch bass singer specialized in baroque music.- Biography :Peter Kooy started his musical career at 6 years as a choir boy. However he started his musical studies as a violin student...
a quartet Tanto Canto to sing rarely performed music a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
, with piano or with ensemble. The quartet recorded in 2005 excerpts from the collections Augsburger Tafel-Confect (short for: Ohren-vergnügendes und Gemüth-ergötzendes Tafel-Confect, in English: Augsburg Table Confectionery, Pleasuring the Ears and Delightful to the Soul) of the composers Valentin Rathgeber
Valentin Rathgeber
Johann Valentin Rathgeber was a German composer, organist and choirmaster of the Baroque Era.His father, an organist, gave him his first music lessons...
and Johann Caspar Seyfert
Johann Caspar Seyfert
Johann Caspar Seyfert was a German composer, violinist and lute player.He was a music director in Augsburg. In 1746 he added a fourth volume to the Augsburger Tafel-Confect, which Valentin Rathgeber had published in 1733, 1737 and 1739...
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Bonhoff recorded psalm settings and other sacred music in Latin of Johann Adolph Hasse
Johann Adolph Hasse
Johann Adolph Hasse was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a considerable quantity of sacred music...
. In 2004 she recorded sacred music of Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
with the chamber choir I Vocalisti, conducted by Hans-Joachim Lustig. In 2005 she performed in St. Petri, Cuxhaven, in Honegger's oratorio Le roi David
Le Roi David (Honegger)
Le roi David was composed in Mézières, Switzerland in 1921 by Arthur Honegger and is classified as an oratorio or more specifically as a dramatic psalm...
. In 2007 she performed in Rossini's Petite messe solennelle
Petite Messe Solennelle
Gioachino Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle was written in 1863, "the last", the composer called it, "of my péchés de vieillesse" .....
, conducted by Matthias Zangerle. She has collaborated with the choir Nordschleswigsche Musikvereinigung, in 2008 in Francesco Durante
Francesco Durante
Francesco Durante was an Italian composer.He was born at Frattamaggiore, in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, and at an early age he entered the Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesù Cristo, in Naples, where he received lessons from Gaetano Greco. Later he became a pupil of Alessandro Scarlatti at the...
's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Confitebor and Rossini's early Messa di Rimini (1809), in 2009 in Haydn's Missa in angustiis
Missa in angustiis
The Missa in Angustiis or "Nelson Mass" , is one of fourteen masses written by Joseph Haydn. It is one of the six masses written near the end of his life which are now seen as a culmination of Haydn's liturgical composition.- Background :Haydn's chief biographer, H. C...
and Bach's cantata
Bach cantata
Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....
Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172
Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172
Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! , BWV 172, is a church cantata of Johann Sebastian Bach, written for Pentecost Sunday in Weimar, first performed there in the Schlosskirche on 20 May 1714.- History :In Weimar, Bach was the court organist of Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar...
. In 2009 she performed Haydn's Paukenmesse, celebrated in a church service for the 200th anniversary of the composer's death, in St. Petri, Hamburg
St. Petri, Hamburg
The St. Peter's Church ] in Hamburg was built on top of many churches. It was built by order of Pope Leo the Tenth.-History:...
. In 2010 she appeared in a concert of the Universität Hamburg in the oratorio Die Glocke of Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...
. In November 2010 she was the mezzo-soprano soloist in Verdi's Messa da Requiem in St. Martin, Idstein
St. Martin, Idstein
St. Martin in Idstein, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, is the church of the local Roman Catholic parish. The official name is Katholische Pfarrkirche St. Martin. The parish is part of the Diocese of Limburg...
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Christa Bonhoff is married to the tenor Dantes Diwiak
Dantes Diwiak
Dantes Diwiak is a tenor, who grew up and has worked mostly in Germany.- Professional career :Dantes Diwiak studied singing with Klaus Kirchner and opera at the Musikhochschule Hannover with Theo Altmeyer. He took master classes with Hermann Reutter, Birgit Nilsson, Helmuth Rilling and Scot Weir...
.