“Andreas Karasiak, the Evangelist, was the other standout.”

(LA Times, by Mark Swed, March 22, 2007)

 

Andreas Karasiak studied voice at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz with Prof. Claudia Eder, with whom he continues to work. Concurrently he studied Baroque music with René Jacobs in Basel.

The lyric tenor was engaged at the National Theatre Mannheim from the 1999/2000 through the 2001/2002 seasons. There he sang roles such as Tamino, Ferrando, Belmonte, Jaquino, Alfred/Die Fledermaus, Schwan/Carmina burana, Testo/Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (Monteverdi) and Uriel/The Creation. He has also appeared at the opera houses in Stuttgart, Braunschweig, Oldenburg, Mainz, Kaiserslautern, Wiesbaden and Weimar and has worked with directors such as Katharina Thalbach and George Tabori. At the Basel Theatre he sang Jupiter in Handel's Semele under the baton of Konrad Junghänel. Furthermore, he sang the role of Bazzotto in Benda's Il buon marito in Bilbao under the baton of Martin Haselböck.

Andreas Karasiak has performed with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Bruno Weil, Hanns-Martin Schneidt, Frieder Bernius, Marcus Creed, Helmuth Rilling, Hermann Max, Sylvain Cambreling, Gustav Leonhardt, Jan Willem de Vriend, Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe, Michael Hofstetter, Andreas and Christoph Spering, Jun Märkl, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Philippe Pierlot, Michael Schneider, Adam Fischer, Pierre Cao, Martin Haselböck, and David Zinman. He has appeared with orchestras such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concerto Köln, the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, as well as with the Dresden Kreuzchor, Thomanerchor Leipzig, Knabenchor Hannover.

CD recordings with ensembles such as La Stagione Frankfurt, the Orchestre des Champs Elysées/Philippe Herreweghe, the RIAS Chamber Choir, the Thomanerchor Leipzig, and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra/Ton Koopman testify to the high quality of his creative output.

Recent highlights include performances with the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg under the direction of Sylvain Cambreling, at Vienna's KlangBogen Festival, at the Melbourne International Arts Festival (with the Brussels Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie) and at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele under Michael Hofstetter's baton. Under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock he performed Don Ottavio/Don Giovanni at the Feldkirch Festival and Agenore/Il re pastore a the Salzburg Festival, Beethovenfeste Bonn and Musikfest Bremen. He sang Bach's B-minor Mass with the Thomanerchor Leipzig and Christmas Oratorio with the Dresdner Kreuzchor. In 2007, he sang Die schöne Müllerin in Tokyo and St Matthew Passion (Evangelist) with the Wiener Akademie in Mexico, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, Vienna, Sevilla, Baden-Baden, and Munich.

Important engagements 2007/2008: Haydn Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno with Andreas Spering at the Niedersächsische Musiktage (September 2007); Christmas Oratorio with Tapiola Sinfonietta and with the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino/Peter Schreier in Firenze (December 2007); several projects with Christoph Spering (i.e. Bach's St. John Passion/March 2008, Handel's Theodora/September 2008); Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (March 2008); Haydn's The Creation with the Netherlands Bach Society under the baton of Jos van Veldhoven (October 2008); Christmas concerts with the Dresdner Kreuzchor at the Konzerthaus Berlin (December 2008).