Die Kölner Akademie is a unique ensemble based in Cologne which performs music of the seventeenth through the twenty first centuries on modern and period instruments with world renowned guest soloists.The ensemble seeks to bring out the composers’ intentions by using historical seating plans, critical editions and the proper instrumentation for each work.
Die Kölner Akademie has received the highest critical acclaim for its outstanding performances at major festivals in Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Holland, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Iceland and the US. Many of these performances were broadcast live and several were filmed for television.
Highlights for the 2010 season include the release of 7 CDS, featuring works by JS Bach, Anton Eberl, Johann Kalliwoda and Mozart among others, a tour of Spain featuring works by Pergolesi, a program of 17th century German music at the BOZAR Series in Brussels, the premiere of an oratorio by Johann Fux in Melk, Austria, performances at festivals in Italy, France, Poland and Austria and a Kurt Weill program in Paris at the Cité de la Musique.
Highlights for the 2010 season include the release of 7 CDS, featuring works by J.S. Bach, Anton Eberl, Johann Kalliwoda and Mozart, performances at the BOZAR in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Pfingston Festival in Melk, Austria, the Chopin Festival in Warsaw, the Festival de la Chaise Dieu in France, the Esterhazy palace in Eisenstadt, a Kurt Weill program in Paris at the Cité de la Musique as well as concerts at prestiigous festivals in Italy, Spain, Holland and the recording of four new CDs.
Michael Alexander Willens
Michael Alexander Willens received B.M and M.M degrees at the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied conducting with John Nelson. He has also studied with Jacques-Louis Monod, Harold Farberman, Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood, and choral conducting with Paul Vorwerk. Mr. Willens is the music director for Die Kölner Akademie, an ensemble based in Cologne which performs on both period and modern instruments. His broad experience has given him an unusual depth of background and familiarity with performance practice styles ranging from Baroque, Classical and Romantic through Contemporary. He has conducted concerts for the Great Performer’s series at Lincoln Center in New York, and at major festivals in Germany, Austria , France, Spain, Holland, Italy, Belgium, Estonia and Iceland, all of which received the highest critical praise:
- “…performed the brilliant and closely-wrought score exactly and with real dynamism”
- “….well-rounded and impressive interpretation”
- “….strove continually for keen tonal balance between strings and winds”
- “His sense of discovery is the golden thread running through the interpretations”
- “The success of the whole owed in large measure to the uncommonly precise, yet never affected gestures of Michael Alexander Willens”
Many of these performances were broadcast live and several were filmed for television.
In addition to performing the standard repertoire, Mr Willens is dedicated to perfoming the works of lesser known contemporary American composers and has conducted world premieres of the music of Paul Amrod, Richard Farber (which were broadcast live) and Richard Squires (which was filmed for television). He is also keenly interested in bringing lesser known works from the past to the fore through concerts and CDs.
In addtion to the Kölner Akademie, Mr Willens has guest conducted orchestras in Germany, Holland, Poland, Brazil and Israel.