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The German conductor, Barbara Rucha, studied conducting and musicoloy at London University (George Hurst) and was an Erasmus scolar at La Sorbonne, University of Paris. In 1996 she passed with distinction her conducting diploma at Rimsky-Korsakov-Conservatory in St. Petersburg as a pupil of Professor Ily Musin. She won the Prize for Conducting of the Bavarian Music Fonds. At the Hochschule für Musik Dresden (Professor Kurz) she finished her conducting studies with the concert diploma in 1999. She completed her studies with ethnomusicology (Master of Philosophy) and obtained the academical degree Doctor of Philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin in Berlin as scholarship holder of the Cusanuswerk. Her thesis on world music festivals was entitled “Weltmusikfestivals - Begegnung mit dem Fremden auf eigene Weise”.
From 1999 to 2007 Barbara Rucha was musical director of the Karl-Forster-Choir Berlin. She conducted a subscription series of concerts at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall with the choral-symphonic repertoire, and toured with the choir to Greece, Switzerland, Poland and South Korea. In March 2005 she conducted the first stage production of G.F. Handel: Brockes Passion, HWV 48 at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall (director: Hendrik Müller). On May 8, 2005 to celebrate 60 years of peace in Europe she conducted a Memorial Concert of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall which brought together musicians from all over Europe. Here she collaborated with the Artur Rubinstein Filharmonia Łodz, the academy orchestra of the Berlin Philharmonic and three choruses. Wolfgang Thierse took the patronage for this concert, it was sponsored by the Berlin »Hauptstadtkulturfonds« and the Luxemburg Ministry for Cultural Affairs. In August and September 2005 she conducted an opera production of Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi at Capital Arts Theatre in Canberra, Australia.
From October 2005 to 2007 Barbara Rucha was a laureate of the »Akademie Musiktheater heute« (Deutsche Bank Stiftung). At Dartington Summer Festival of Music (UK) she conducted Don Giovanni and Falstaff. At Meißen Theatre she conducted an operetta production of Lincke’s Lysistrata and at the Theater Hallesches Ufer in Berlin she conducted Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande.Going back to Australia, she gave in August 2006 an opera workshop on Mozart’s Così fan tutte for the Australian National University in Canberra.
Since October 2007 Barbara Rucha works as Academic Assistant at the University for Music in Leipzig. She teaches conducting and score playing and works with the university’s Symphonic Orchestra. In October 2007 she composed the Chamber Opera Fest.Akt for the Academy Music Theatre today which she directed from the piano at its premiere in Frankfurt/Main. Other major productions in 2007: in February she conducted the stage production Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns in Berlin and at the Philharmonic Hall of Łodz, Poland, and in Berlin. In June she conducted the Kreutzersonate at Freiburg Theatre for which she also wrote the arrangements and miniatures. In August she conducted The Magic Flute in Canberra, Australia. In September she conducted the opera production Three Riddles by Detlev Glanert in Buxtehude. For her work she was awarded the prize of the “Academy Music Theatre today”.
In April 2008 Barbara Rucha conducted the People’s Opera Production Orpheus in the Underworld - Hommage to Einar Schleef at the Thalia Theater in Halle. She rearranged the Operetta for 150 singers, speakers, rappers and instrumentalists in a very unconventional and inspiring way. In her latest concerts in Berlin she conducted two rarely performed oratorios to huge acclaim: Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth by Franz Liszt (Philharmonic Hall) and Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln by Franz Schmidt (Konzerthaus).
In recent years Barbara Rucha has worked as a guest conductor with the following ensembles: Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester of Frankfurt/Oder, Brass Ensemble of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Berliner Symphoniker, New Elbland Philharmonics, German Chamber Orchestra Berlin, Hof Symphonic Orchestra Westsaxon for Cottbus State Opera, as well as with Filharmonia Olsztynska, Artur Rubinstein Filharmonia Łodz and Filharmonia Poznanska in Poland
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