Andreas Küppers

Andreas Küppers has worked for many years as musical assistant to René Jacobs. He has been engaged repeatedly times by the Staatsoper Berlin, the Theater an der Wien, the Ruhrtriennale, the Oper Frankfurt, La Monnaie Brussels opera house, the Paris Opéra Garnier and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as musical assistant and harpsichordist/pianist at international music events.

Andreas Küppers has played with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Frankfurter Museumsorchester, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, working with, among others, Thomas Hengelbrock, Fabio Biondi, Teodor Currentzis, Michael Hofstetter, Ton Koopman, Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Christophe Coin, Louis Langrée, Michael Schneider, Jérémie Rhorer, Andrea Marcon, Stephen Isserlis, Julian Steckel, and Maurice Steger.

Numerous CD recordings with well-known conductors, soloists and orchestras testify to his artistic talent: various productions under the baton of René Jacobs, cooperating on projects with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the Freiburger Barockorchester, several publications with Hille Perl und Lee Santana, the fruitful collaboration with Kristin von der Goltz, and recordings with the B’Rock-Orchestra and the La Folia Barockorchester.

As conductor of his Teatro del mondo ensemble, Andreas Küppers appeared at the Rheingau Musikfestival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern  Musikfestival, the Festival Rhein-Vokal, the Beethovenfest Bonn and the Young Euro Classic Festival Berlin, collaborating successfully with, among others Gottfried von der Goltz, Bernhard Forck, Mayumi Hirasaki, Hille Perl, Sibylla Rubens, Klaus Mertens and the Tölzer Knabenchor. Recordings with Julian Prégardien, Robin Johannsen and received enthusiastic critical acclaim. “Terrific improvisatory flair”, BBC Magazine wrote. “One feels that Andreas Küppers has worked repeatedly with René Jacobs. The orchestra speaks, sings and forms every emotion in detail” (Opernwelt).

In addition to his permanent activity as choir director and harpsichordist at B’Rock-Orchestra, Andreas Küppers will in 2020 be conducting[m1]  several concerts with the Dutch ensemble Ribattuta Musica (choir + orchestra) and J. S. Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion and B-minor Mass, along with G.F. Handel’s Messiah. Besides this he is engaged as musical assistant to Thomas Hengelbrock in the new production of von W.A. Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

Andreas Küppers first studied piano with Prof. Catherine Vickers and Prof. Sibylle Cada, and later historical interpretation practice for harpsichord and piano with Prof. Harald Hoeren and Wiebke Weidanz at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (HfMDK) Frankfurt. Other teachers included Prof. Jörg-Andreas Bötticher (Basel) and Michael Behringer (Freiburg). He also attended classes with Prof. Jesper Christensen (Basel). Between 2006 and 2015 Andreas Küppers taught at the HfMDK Frankfurt and gave various masterclasses.

The German uses the more general word ‘leiten’ (to lead), but if correct in this context, ‘conducting’ is better.