Magdalena Hoffmann
Solo harpist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, lecturer at the Tyrolean State Conservatory.
German musician Magdalena Hoffmann has been principal harpist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra since November 2018. She previously held the same position in the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck for four years, and in 2015 she also took over as head of the class for concert harp at the Tyrolean State Conservatory. In March 2021, Deutsche Grammophon signed her as an exclusive artist.
She studied in Düsseldorf with Fabiana Trani, a year abroad took her to London to the Royal Academy and in Munich she completed her Master’s degree with Cristina Bianchi. She has also worked with many renowned harpists, such as Fabrice Pierre, Isabelle Moretti, Mara Galassi, Alice Giles, Milda Agazarian and Park Stickney.
She was a scholarship holder of the Cusanuswerk and won numerous prizes at national and international competitions, most recently two special prizes at the International ARD Competition Munich 2016.
As a sought-after chamber musician and soloist, Magdalena Hoffmann has made guest appearances at various festivals (e.g. DAVOS FESTIVAL or Festival Alpenklassik) and performs with renowned musicians such as Karl-Heinz Schütz, Andrea Lieberknecht or Aleksey Igudesman.
Magdalena not only constantly expands the conventional harp repertoire with her choice of programmes, but also always works on artistically interdisciplinary concepts; in 2014 she performed her theatre concert “ODYSSEE on 47 strings” for the first time at the HarpMasters Festival in Switzerland, and in 2017 she contributed texts and illustrations to Aleksey Igudesman’s album “Funny Animals” published by Universal Editions.
In 2018, her first solo CD “FOOTNOTES” was released.
“Essentially, there were two things in the past that made it possible for me to now live the life I want: my education and a place I can call “home” to this day. It is the declared goal of CASA HOGAR to give young girls just that: education and a “home”. This is to give them, but also the society in which they live, a new future. This cause is very close to my heart and I want to do everything I can to make it a success. Music is considered the language that reaches the heart most directly, and so I hope to be able to open many people’s ears and hearts to the suffering that still exists in the Chocó so largely unnoticed – and to fight it.”
Anna Lucia Richter
Mezzo soprano
Anna Lucia Richter comes from a large family of musicians. A long-time member of the girls’ choir at Cologne Cathedral, she received singing lessons from her mother Regina Dohmen from the age of nine. She was subsequently trained by Prof. Kurt Widmer in Basel and completed her singing studies with distinction with Prof. Klesie Kelly-Moog at the Cologne Academy of Music. She received further inspiration from Christoph Prégardien, Edith Wiens and Margreet Honig. In spring 2020, the artist initiated a change of subject to mezzo-soprano under the guidance of vocal expert Prof. Tamar Rachum, who still mentors her and is now her authoritative teacher. This was an important step that opened up new opportunities for the artist worldwide.
She also made the switch to opera: in the summer of 2021, she was a guest at the Salzburg Festival and still sang Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni under Teodor Currentzis. In 2022/23 she will sing Offenbach’s La Perichole at the Theater an der Wien and a new production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Sesto) in Cologne.
Anna Lucia Richter has recently worked frequently with Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna, including concert performances of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, with the London Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Haitink. She has also appeared repeatedly with these ensembles at major festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the BBC Proms in London, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival or as ‘Artist in Residence’ at the Rheingau Musik Festival 2018 as well as at the Kölner Philharmonie 2018/19.
The artist has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. In the Lied repertoire, Anna Lucia Richter has performed at all the major Lied centres, including the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, New York’s Park Avenue Armory, Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall London.
“As a member of a more privileged part of the world, it is easy to turn a blind eye to the suffering in Chocó, Colombia. CASA HOGAR does not do that. CASA HOGAR and at its head Dr Theodor Rüber do invaluable work in the Chocó. In this way, girls and young women are given the opportunities that every human being should actually have as a birthright: To grow up in safety and to have access to education.”
Ludger Vollmer
Opera composer, musician, qualified teacher
Ludger Vollmer‘s reputation actually relieves us of the task of introducing him: He is Germany’s most successful opera composer, receiving commission after commission from Germany’s major opera houses, which he responds to with operas such as “Run Lola Run”, “Border” or “Against the Wall”. The remarkable thing about his success is how close he has come to the heart of society with his work in the offside of the “Donaueschingen musical elite”, as he calls it. Ludger’s music is people-friendly, accessible and yet high art.
“CASA HOGAR is a very efficient aid project: concentrated forces work together in a coordinated way. Each member of the CASA HOGAR team does what he or she does best, in precise coordination with the others. It’s a bit like a good orchestra: in the end, the result is more than the sum of the individual contributions. CASA HOGAR not only saves young girls from the worst physical and psychological traumas, which would already be a great concern, it also tries to break down the patriarchal and macho structures that prevent society in Chocó from real development like a shackle through the targeted education of girls. I believe that artists have a social responsibility. The drive and creativity of the young team at CASA HOGAR is inspiring, which is why I am happy to support them.”
fiat ars
Choral ensemble for sacred music
fiat ars was founded by Jonas Dickopf, who is also a member of the CASA HOGAR team, in 2006 and has been directed by him ever since. Today, fiat ars is considered one of the best choral ensembles in the Rhineland. The equally astute and fearless programmes that Jonas Dickopf designs together with fiat ars, together with its highest standards of sonic quality, make the ensemble one of the most interesting hosts of sacred choral concerts within Cologne’s (highly competitive) music scene.
Since its founding in 2006, the choir has developed a now considerably broad repertoire of sacred choral music from all epochs (with a certain emphasis on contemporary compositions). Concert tours have taken fiat ars to Mainz, Metz, Kehl, Saarbrücken and Worms (2012), the Netherlands (2013), Hamburg and Lübeck (2015), Bavaria (2017) and England (Liverpool, Sheffield, Nottingham, 2019).
In Cologne and the surrounding area, fiat ars can be heard regularly with full-length concert programmes and at masses or other liturgies – in the Cologne Cathedral, in the twelve Romanesque churches or even in suburban parishes.
“We from fiat ars are committed to CASA HOGAR because we know about our privileged position as choir singers in Central Europe. Through CASA HOGAR we have the opportunity to contribute to a very concrete, good cause with our very own means, namely choral singing”.