Chamber Music Evening N° 1

Michael Schmid

Michael Schmid initially received his violin training as a junior student with Prof Conrad von der Goltz. After leaving school, he studied in Salzburg and Vienna with Prof Harald Herzl and Prof Christian Altenburger. He received further musical impulses in the class of Prof Ingolf Turban, in chamber music studies with Prof Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) and in masterclasses with Leonidas Kavakos, Christian Tetzlaff and Prof Igor Ozim.

He has already gained orchestral experience in the German National Youth Orchestra, later as an academy member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, as a substitute in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and the Camerata Salzburg.

Michael Schmid was a scholarship holder of the Vienna Philharmonic Summer Academy and the Kronberg Academy Festival, is a first prize winner of the national competition ‘Jugend musiziert’ and a prize winner of the International Johannes Brahms Competition.

In 2017, he completed his studies at the Vienna University of Music with honours and became a member of the 2nd violins of the Staatskapelle Dresden.

He has performed as a soloist in Alban Berg's violin concerto Kapelle für alle Fälle ‘Dem Andenken eines Engels’, as a chamber musician at the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and on tours in Asia and South America.

In addition to chamber music, Michael Schmid is also passionate about promoting young musicians. From 2019 to 2022, he was a board member of the Giuseppe Sinopoli Academy of the Staatskapelle Dresden and has been a lecturer at the Regensburg University of Music since 2024.

Susanne Branny

Susanne Branny was born in Dresden and received her musical education at music school and later at the Special School of Music in Dresden. This is also where she studied violin at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music.

In 1990, she was appointed concertmaster of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. In the same year, she began her engagement in the 1st violins of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. As a chamber music partner, she plays regularly with the Cappella Musica Dresden and frequently with the Dresdner Barocksolisten.

Susanne Branny is one of the founding members of the Dresdner Kapellsolisten. She has been their concertmaster since 2000 and as such has participated in relevant CD recordings of the chamber orchestra. She also appears frequently as a soloist at concerts in Germany and abroad (Semperoper Dresden, Philharmonie Köln, Musikhalle Hamburg, Rheingau Music Festival, Philharmonie Essen, Festspielhaus Bregenz, Munich, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Sapporo).

Mechthild von Ryssel

Mechthild von Ryssel, born into a musical family in Dahme, received her first violin lessons at the age of five in Görlitz with Helmut Frenzel and later with Maria Frenzel. From the 7th grade onwards, she was taught by Uta Maria Frenzel at the Special School for Music in Dresden. She studied music from 1980 to 1986 at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden under Professor Reinhard Ulbricht.

Her first orchestral engagement took her to the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra Chemnitz in 1986 as principal 1st violin. Mechthild von Ryssel has played in the 2nd violin section of the Staatskapelle Dresden since 1994.

Mechthild von Ryssel has also been a member of the Dresdner Kapellsolisten since 2006, with whom she has given numerous performances in Germany and abroad.

Florian Richter

Florian Richter received his first violin lessons at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig as a junior student with Prof. Klaus Hertel. In 2000, he switched to the viola before continuing his studies in 2001 at the ‘Schloss Belvedere’ Music High School in Weimar in the class of Prof Erich Krüger.

From 2004 to 2014, the multiple national prizewinner at ‘Jugend musiziert’ studied at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar with Prof. Ditte Leser and Prof. Erich Krüger, completing his studies with a concert exam. He also received important musical impulses in masterclasses with Prof Alfred Lipka, Prof Dietmar Hallmann, Prof Hartmut Rohde, Prof Martin Spangenberg and Prof Norbert Brainin, among others.

Florian Richter was a scholarship holder of the Hans and Eugenia Jütting Foundation, the German Foundation for Musical Life and the Carl Flesch Academy. As a soloist, he has performed under the direction of Johannes Klumpp, Helmuth Rilling, Stefan Solyom, Michael Sanderling, Marek Janowski and other renowned conductors.

From 2010 to 2012, Florian Richter was principal viola of the Staatskapelle Weimar and held the same position with the Staatsorchester Stuttgart from 2012 to 2017. At the same time, he was involved in promoting young viola players at the Schloss Belvedere Music High School in Weimar until 2017, before being appointed Professor of Viola at the Nuremberg University of Music in October of the same year.

Florian Richter has been principal viola of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden since 2017.

Stephan Pätzold

Stephan Pätzold was born in Dresden in 1962 and grew up in the village of Reichstädt in the eastern Ore Mountains. He received his first musical impressions in his parents' cantor's household. In addition to singing, he began to focus on the violin from the age of seven, which led to him studying the viola at the Dresden University of Music with his future colleague Winfried Berger after completing his training at the Dippoldiswalde Music School in 1978.

He gained his first experience in a professional orchestra as a substitute with the Staatskapelle before becoming a member of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. After five years, he finally joined the Staatskapelle Dresden in 1989.

Over the years, Stephan Pätzold developed an increasing fondness for 18th century music outside of the orchestra, which he was able to pursue in the Dresden Baroque Orchestra and later also with the Dresdner Kapellsolisten.

His musical activities are rounded off by solo and chamber music performances in various formations as well as his teaching activities at the Dresden Academy of Music. In 1999 he auditioned for his current position as deputy principal violist.

Stephanie Atanasov

Die gebürtige Wienerin, Jahrgang 1983, studierte an der Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien. Sie ist Preisträgerin verschiedener Wettbewerbe, zuletzt der Competizione dell’Opera 2008 in Dresden. Von 2005 bis 2006 war sie Mitglied des Jungen Ensemble der Semperoper Dresden. Seit 2006 ist sie festes Ensemblemitglied der Semperoper, wo sie u.a. als Cherubino (»Le nozze di Figaro«), Hänsel, Valencienne (»Die lustige Witwe«) und Dorabella (»Così fan tutte«) zu sehen war. 2008 debütierte sie bei den Salzburger Festspielen als 2. Waldnymphe in Dvořáks »Rusalka«. Zuletzt führten sie Gastspiele als Octavian an die Deutsche Oper Berlin, als Marguerite (»La damnation de Faust«) in den Wiener Musikverein, als Cherubino an die Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin sowie erneut zu den Salzburger Festspielen, wo sie zur Eröffnung in Mozarts c-Moll-Messe und als 3. Magd in »Elektra« zu hören war. In der Spielzeit 2010/11 gibt sie an der Semperoper ihre Rollendebüts als Sesto Pompeo (»Giulio Cesare in Egitto«), Dido (»Dido and Aeneas«) und Smeton (»Anna Bolena«).