Biography
After successfully completing his law studies, Rolf Beck decided to take a conducting course in the class of Helmuth Rilling. In 1972, he founded the Marburg Vocal Ensemble and this soon became one of the leading German ensembles, winning many national and international prizes with him as chorus director. He also founded the Chorus of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and this too soon achieved great international acclaim. In his position as artistic director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (SHMF) Rolf Beck laid the foundation stone in 2002 for the Choral Academy of the SHMF and for twelve successful seasons he was the artistic director of this Academy, bringing together in Schleswig-Holstein a considerable number of young talented singers from all the over the world. The Schleswig-Holstein Festival Chor Lübeck under its director Rolf Beck went on tours in Germany and abroad including Prague Spring Festival 2011. At the beginning of the 2013/14 season Rolf Beck evolved his idea of furthering young talented singers in the form of a choral academy, operating independently and with a new name: the International Choral Academy Lübeck. With their innovative and unusual concert programmes which also include the major choral works of the classical repertoire the ensemble has enriched the concert and cultural landscape on the highest artistic level in Lübeck and from here all over the world. From the huge number of recordings with Rolf Beck special mention must be made of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus (issued on the harmonia mundi label), Handel’s Alexander’s Feast, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, as well as Orff’s Carmina burana (issued on the Sony label).
Updated: June 2015