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The German conductor, Matthias Beckert, studied orchestral conducting under Professor Yuuko Amanuma, church music under Professor Gerhard Weinberger, school music and choir-conducting in master-classes with Professor Jörg Straube. He completed his studies with master-classes with Professor Gustaf Sjökvist, Professor Helmuth Rilling, Professor Volker Hempfling and Professor Anders Eby.
Matthias Beckert is one of the leading choir and orchestra directors of his generation. As well as a variety of a cappella choir works, his wide concert repertoire also includes the most ambitious oratorio works from Renaissance to Modern.
Matthias Beckert has been director and conductor of the Monteverdichor Würzburg since 1998, and since 2001 has been teaching choral-conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg. In 2002 he founded the Monteverdi Ensemble Würzburg. He performs internationally with renowned vocal ensemble Cantabile Regensburg, which he has been directing since 2002. He has conducted numerous premieres and is particularly involved in contemporary choral music and historical performance practice. Beckert has directed numerous premieres in close collaboration with composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfram Buchenberg, Zsolt Gárdonyi and Heinz Werner Zimmermann. In appreciation, Zimmermann dedicated his choral work I got a robe and Gárdonyi dedicated his composition One day with the Lord is like a thousand years to Matthias Beckert.
As a part of the Würzburg Mozart Festival 2006, Matthias Beckert conducted the anniversary concert with works by the festival’s founder, Hermann Zilcher. The city of Würzburg praised Beckert for producing such continually excellent and high standard performance over many years by awarding him the cultural medal. The Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunksr praised Matthias Beckert at the 2007 forum for choral conducting under the leadership of Gustaf Sjökvist in Munich. In the same year he was appointed choir director of the Suhler Singakademie and the long-standing Suhler Boys Choir. In 2008 he was invited to take part in the International Bachwoche Stuttgart, conducting the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart of Helmuth Rilling..
At the Bavarian Choir Competition 2009 both the Monteverdichor Würzburg and Cantabile Regensburg were highly praised and were chosen to represent the state in the national German Choir Competition 2010. The Monteverdichor Würzburg was subsequently distinguished as “excellent” and awarded the prestigious second prize, making it one of the best choirs in all of Germany. Beckert was also awarded a grant for choir directors by the German Music Council. In 2011 he has been invited to Japan to conduct in Iris Hall of Nakatono.
Matthias Beckert works successfully with renowned orchestras such as the Jenaer Philharmonie, Hofer Symphonikern, Vogtland Philharmonie Greiz/Reichenbach, Thüringen Philharmonic Gotha, Thüringer Symhonikern Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Mainphilharmonie Frankfurt, Main Philharmonic and Concert Royal Köln. From 1999 to 2005 Matthias Beckert was conductor and director of the orchestra Pizzicato. Among others he gave concerts in Italy, Polen, Spain and Japan.
Matthias Beckert’s work features on numerous radio, television and CD recordings, for example with the labels Musicaphon, cpo and Spectral. |
