Hans-Christoph Rademann

Conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is an internationally sought-after interpreter with a wide repertoire, ranging from the rediscovery of early music to premieres of contemporary works. He specialises in composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Heinrich Schütz. He has recorded Schütz’s complete choral works for the Carus Verlag label. In the 2023/24 season he will perform all the cantatas from Bach’s first yearly cycle as Kantor of St. Thomas’s Leipzig with the Gaechinger Cantorey; these will be released on Hänssler Classic.

Born in Dresden, Hans-Christoph Rademann grew up in a Kantor’s family in Schwarzenberg in the Ore Mountains (Saxony). He sang in the famous Kreuzchor in Dresden and studied choral and orchestral conducting at the Musikhochschule Dresden. Shortly after embarking on his studies, he founded the Dresdner Kammerchor which he led to international fame. Hans-Christoph Rademann was director of the Singakademie Dresden, chief conductor of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Chorus, and from 2007 to 2015 conductor of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin. In 2013 he was appointed Akademie Director of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart as successor to Helmuth Rilling. He refounded its resident ensemble, the Gaechinger Cantorey, as a period instrument ensemble. With the “BachBewegt!” programme he has expanded an extensive educational programme at the Bachakademie Stuttgart, unique of its kind.

Guest performances have taken him all over the world – to North and South America, China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, South America and to almost all the European centres of music. In November 2022 he opened the Bachfest Montréal with an acclaimed performance of Bach’s St John Passion. He is regularly invited to conduct leading ensembles such as the Netherlands Bach Ensemble, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Collegium 1704, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Dresden Philharmonic and Stuttgart Philharmonic.

Hans-Christoph Rademann has been awarded numerous prizes for his artistic work and his social engagement, including the Saxon Constitutional Medal, the Art Prize of the City of Dresden, the Johann Walter Plaque, the Heinrich Schütz Prize and the Prize for European Church Music. CD recordings from his extensive discography have received the German Record Critics’ Annual Award, the Grand Prix du Disque, Gramophone Classical Music Award, Diapason d’Or and Opus Klassik.

Hans-Christoph Rademann was appointed Professor of Choral Conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden in 2000. He is also Artistic Director of the Erzgebirge Music Festival, an ambassador for the Ore Mountains region and patron of the Christlicher Hospizdienst Dresden (Christian Hospice Service Dresden).