Golda Schultz
South African soprano Golda Schultz is internationally hailed as one of today’s most talented and versatile artists, as at home in leading operatic roles as she is as featured soloist with the world’s foremost orchestras and conductors. Unanimously praised for her ​“warmth of tone and sensitivity of phrasing”, Schultz trained at New York’s Juilliard School and Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opernstudio and found immediate success on both sides of the Atlantic through early operatic appearances like Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at Salzburger Festspiele, Contessa Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at the Metropolitan Opera and Wiener Staatsoper.

Operatic highlights of past seasons include Micaëla (Carmen) at Opéra National de Paris and Lyric Opera of Chicago, Contessa and Liù at Wiener Staatsoper, Agathe (Der Freischütz) at Bayerische Staatsoper, Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) at Salzburger Festspiele, Clara in Jake Heggie’s It’s A Wonderful Life at San Francisco Opera, Madame Lidoine in Barrie Kosky’s highly acclaimed staging of Dialogues des Carmélites at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and, returning each season since her debut in 2017/18, Clara (Porgy and Bess), Nanetta (Falstaff), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro), Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress) and Adina (L’elisir d’amore) at the Metropolitan Opera.

As part of the 2023/24 season commitments, Golda Schultz further expands her existing repertoire with role debuts as both Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) at Dallas Opera and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at Opernhaus Zürich and makes house debuts at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), conducted by Alexander Soddy and at Berliner Staatsoper unter den Linden, in what will mark her farewell performances as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) under Joana Mallwitz. She also returns to Wiener Staatsoper as Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), conducted by Adam Fischer and makes frequent appearances on the major concert stages on both sides of the Atlantic: joining Andris Nelsons and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig for commemorative performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 marking the 200th anniversary of its premiere, Gianandrea Noseda and New York Philharmonic for Mahler’s Symphony No.4 and Fabio Luisi and Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Brahm’s Ein deutsches Requiem. Golda Schultz is also featured soloist in the annual New Year concerts with Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and broadcast live on ZDF.

Demand for Golda Schultz in concert is unparalleled. She recently appeared with both Andris Nelsons conducting Boston Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius, Luonnotar, with Gustavo Dudamel and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in her first performances of Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder and joined The Philhadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin for Mozart’s Requiem. She appeared at the 2022 Salzburg Festival in Schubert’s Mass No.6 under Franz Welser-Möst, performed Mendelssohn’s Elias with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Andris Nelsons, presented a programme of Mahler songs with Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi and debuted with New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Strauss’ Brentano Lieder under Santtu-Matias Rouvali. She performed Mahler’s Symphony No.2 with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Mikko Franck and joined Tonkünstler Orchester, and conductor Ivor Bolton, for Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten. In 2020, Golda Schultz was featured soloist of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms and, together with Dalia Stasevska and BBC Symphony Orchestra, their specially curated programme was broadcast live on radio and television to a global audience of millions.

Golda Schultz recently released her debut solo album, This Be Her Verse, on Alpha Classics, an innovative programme that explores the world and inspirations of female composers from the Romantic era to present day, including a new commission from Kathleen Tagg and Lila Palmer, curated together with long-time collaborative pianist Jonathan Ware. An acclaimed recital partnership, Schultz and Ware have performed together at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, London’s Wigmore Hall, Kölner Philharmonie, San Francsico’s Herbst Theater as well as at the Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence and Lucerne festivals and perform in the coming season at Staatstheater Darmstadt, The Schubert Club and at Princeton University

Antonello Manacorda
has been Artistic Director of the Kammerakademie Potsdam since 2010. With him, we have continued to develop as an orchestra over the past ten years.

We have taken decisive steps together, such as the recordings of the great symphonic cycles by Schubert and Mendelssohn and major tours at home and abroad. Working with him is a great privilege. As a concertmaster of many years, he knows the inner workings of an orchestra intimately. With his experience, his foresight and his instinct, we have steadily developed musically together over the past ten years. We are united by the joy of experimenting together. Antonello is always approachable, always open and empathetic. He leads without leading.

An Italian with a strong affinity for the German repertoire. A "melodist by nature" (Der Tagesspiegel) who convincingly knows how to transfer the detailed joy of stylistically informed interpretation practice to the large apparatus. A true orchestral practitioner, moreover, whose artistic creative power is combined with the need for a partnership style of music-making. Antonello Manacorda's versatility as a conductor is rooted in the wealth of his musical and cultural imprints: Born in Turin into an Italian-French family, educated in Amsterdam, and at home in Berlin for many years, Manacorda was a founding member and longtime concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founded by Claudio Abbado, before studying conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula. Today, Antonello Manacorda can be heard as frequently in opera productions at the world's most important opera houses as he can on the podium of leading symphony orchestras. The focal point of his work is the Kammerakademie Potsdam, which he has led as Artistic Director since 2010 and with which he has made a number of award-winning recordings. In the 2021/22 season, Antonello Manacorda will make his debut at the Staatsoper Berlin (Ariadne auf Naxos). Productions of Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly will take him to the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Bavarian State Opera. Furthermore, he follows re-invitations to the Vienna State Opera (Le nozze di Figaro and Entführung aus dem Serail) and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London (La Traviata). Among the highlights of the 2021/22 season will be his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker. The main works on the program are Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Mahler's Rückertlieder with Christian Gerhaher. Antonello Manacorda can also be heard this season as a guest conductor with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and on tour with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment. In recent seasons, Antonello Manacorda has enjoyed success with debuts with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, among others, as well as with his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Le nozze di Figaro) and a new production of Dmitri Tcherniakov's Der Freischütz at the Bavarian State Opera. With the Kammerakademie Potsdam, Antonello Manacorda has recorded both a Mendelssohn cycle and a Schubert cycle for Sony, both to critical acclaim. At the ECHO Klassik 2015, the Kammerakademie Potsdam received the prize in the Ensemble of the Year category for the cycle.

The Kammerakademie Potsdam
celebrated its 20th anniversary in the 21.22 season. 20 years in which the orchestra of the state capital and house orchestra of the Nikolaisaal has earned a reputation far beyond the city limits.

Electrifying musical experiences are the trademark of the dynamic orchestra, which with great passion and curiosity leaves hardly any corner of the classical music repertoire undiscovered.

Numerous concert series for all age groups in Potsdam and Brandenburg, guest performances throughout Europe, award-winning CD recordings and Brandenburg's first Orchestra Academy, founded in 2018, are testimony to the orchestra's success and innovative spirit. Since the 2010/11 season, Antonello Manacorda has been principal conductor and artistic director of the KAP.

In the 2022.23 season, the orchestra is looking forward to working with the gifted horn player, virtuoso harpsichordist, charismatic conductor and accomplished musicologist Václav Luks as Artist in Residence. The KAP also welcomes many internationally sought-after soloists, including Elena Bashkirova, Gábor Boldoczki, Hugu Ticciati, Anna Vinnitskaya, Jan Lisiecki, Sabine Meyer and Anna Prohaska - our Artist in Residence last season. Successful conductors such as Michael Sanderling, Bernard Labadie, Justin Doyle and Holly Hyun Choe are at the podium.

As a cultural ambassador for Potsdam and Brandenburg, the KAP performs in major concert halls and at well-known festivals, including the Philharmonie Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Isarphilharmonie Munich, the Philharmonie Cologne, the Koningin Elisabethzaal Antwerp, the European Weeks Passau and the Heidelberger Frühling.

The Potsdam Winter Opera, a highlight of the Potsdam calendar of events in the unique ambience of the Palace Theater in the New Palace Potsdam, is this year's opera buffa "Il matrimonio segreto" ("The Secret Marriage") by Domenico Cimarosa. Attilio Cremonesi has been won for the musical direction. Adriana Altaras will direct the production.

In order to give everyone access to music, the orchestra offers a wide range of formats, from interactive family concerts and the KiKoKAP video series to participation programs for daycare centers. With the model project "Music Creates Perspectives," which was awarded the BKM special prize "Culture Opens Worlds" in 2017, the KAP sustainably anchors cultural education, participation and equal opportunities in the Potsdam-Drewitz district.