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The Polish bass and singing teacher, Marek Rzepka, was trained as a miner. He won first prize at the Kolobrzeg Festival in 1989 and thereupon began his vocal training in Cracow with Professor Adam Szybowski. He continued his studies with Professor Christian Elsner at the "Carl Maria von Weber" University of Music in Dresden where he graduated with distinction and completed a postgraduate course. Continued by studies with Professor Hans-Joachim Beyer in Leipzig and Professor Rudolf Piernay in Mannheim. Marek Rzepka has attended master-classes with Brigitte Fassbaender, Teresa Zylis-Gara, Peter Schreier, Thomas Quasthoff and Charles Spencer.
Marek Rzepka's wide repertoire includes for example Haydn's The Creation, George Frideric Handel's Messiah and J.S. Bach's B-Minor Mass (BWV 232). He has sung W.A. Mozart's Requiem in the Cracow Philharmonie, J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with the Dresdner Kreuzchor and the Dresdner Philharmonie, Mauricio Kagel's opera Aus Deutschland in Hamburg, J.S. Bach's Kaffeekantate (BWV 211) with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, cantatas of J.S. Bach under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, works by Antonio Lotti and Jan Dismas Zelenka conducted by Andrew Parrott, and has appeared in concerts with Stephen Stubbs and Eduardo López Banzo.
Marek Rzepka performs regularly with the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble and Thomas Hengelbrock, the Musikpodium Stuttgart and Frieder Bernius and the RIAS-Kammerchor and Hans-Christoph Rademann. He has appeared in Milan's Auditorium, at the Bologna Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Handel Festival in Halle, the Dresden Music Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival and the Boston Early Music Festival. In addition, the singer presented recitals at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, in Vienna, Hamburg, Dresden, Cracow and Freiburg and has participated in CD productions and broadcast recordings.
In October 2001 Marek Rzepka received a teaching appointment for voice in the early music department at the "Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy" University of Music in Leipzig.
In 2004 Marek Rzepka made his debut at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels in Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria with a subsequent tour to France, Luxembourg, and New York. This production was also presented at the 2004 Melbourne International Arts Festival. In September 2006 he recorded Lully's opera Thésée under the baton of Stephen Stubbs. A recording of Johann Georg Conradi's Ariadne, presented at the Boston Early Music Festival and Tanglewood Festival (direction: Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs) was nominated for the Grammy Award. Important engagements in 2006-2007 included concerts with Thomas Hengelbrock at the festivals in Athens and Wroclaw, a revival of Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and his debut as Masetto in concert performances of W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Herrenchiemsee Festival 2007.
Besides concerts with the RIAS-Kammerchor in the season 2007-2008 Marek Rzepka performs Uberto in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's La serva padrona with the ensemble Barrocade in Israel and gives a recital at the Jerusalem Academy of Music (March 2008). He sings the basse arias in J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in March 2008. In May 2008 he sings with the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble and Thomas Hengelbrock at the Salzburger Pfingstfestspiele (Compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti and Francesco Durante). In summer 2008 Marek Rzepka returns to the Herrenchiemsee Festival as Il Gran Sacerdote in Verdi's Nabucco.
Marek Rzepka began his teaching activity in 1998 at the Dresden Conservatory. From 2001 he taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig and then in 2009 at the Krakow Conservatory. In July 2015 he was appointed Professor at the Bremen Conservatory. This was followed in November 2016 by the call to the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover (HMTMH), where he is presently a singing professor. His current students and graduates sing at many renowned opera houses and concert stages around the world. Among the singers who have studied with him and/or attended his master-classes: Gesine Adler (Soprano), Viola Blache (Soprano), David Erler (Counter-tenor), Tobias Hechler (Counter-tenor), Julia Kirchner (Soprano), Dániel Mentes (Counter-tenor), Lara Morger (Mezzo-soprano), Andreas Pehl (Counter-tenor), Anastasiya Peretyahina (Soprano), Shirley Radig (Soprano), Dorota Szczepańska (Soprano), Heidi Maria Taubert (Soprano).*** |
