Bridges to Classics with fireworks display
Open air with Bernd Ruf and special guest Hannes Braun & Kissin' Dynamite, songwriter Ilja Ruf and soprano Sarah Hayashi
Musical direction: Bernd Ruf / Kissin’ Dynamite / German Pops Band & Singers / Benjamin Köthe / Staatskapelle Halle / Sarah Hayashi (soprano)
40 / children up to age 14 10 €
In the combination of symphonic rock with pure Handel that is typical of the Handel Festival's Bridges series, bridge builder Bernd Ruf has once again put together a spectacular programme this year. The contrasts could not be greater: rock ballads and thumping heavy metal by Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and the Scorpions meet Handel's effervescent colouratura arias.
And the line-up is getting younger! The headliner is the currently most exciting German hard rock band Kissin' Dynamite with their lead singer Hannes Braun, who is well known to the Bridges audience from his rock covers of recent years. The young soprano from the Semperoper Dresden, Jasmin Delfs, provides the wildly youthful but at the same time deeply tragic and suffering Handel in her arias from Giulio Cesare and Alcina. The trio is completed by the young songwriter, singer and pianist Ilja Ruf with his sensitive songs, some of them original and some of them by Billie Eilish and Elton John: "Bridges has been with me since my early childhood. We are the same age. First I was there as a spectator, then in recent years I've also been on stage. It's a fantastic feeling to celebrate this concert evening with the Bridges family.
The German Pops Singers provide another highlight with their hit medley ‘Best of the 90s’, bringing Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Nirvana, the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls to the Galgenbergschlucht. And when conductor Bernd Ruf picks up his saxophone to Whitney Houston...
The band T2O, TeeZweiOoh, led by composer, guitarist and solo trumpeter of the Staatskapelle Henrik Bierwirth, will give a special foretaste of the premiere of the rock opera ADAM at the Halle Opera House a week later.
For musical director Bernd Ruf, the ‘Bridges to Classics’ are the annual musical highlight: "This concert night is simply overwhelming, in the midst of the enchanting nature of the gorge, to feel the familiar atmosphere with the audience and to be able to play the wonderful music from baroque to rock!
Kissin' Dynamite
The unmistakable KISSIN' DYNAMITE style borrows from the glorious eighties era paired with modern, hooky songwriting and a powerful, contemporary production. The five-piece's sound is unique, fresh and energetic.
The familiar trademarks are brought to the point more than ever on “Back With A Bang!”, whereby the world-class vocals of frontman Hannes Braun are particularly impressive with their enormously high recognition value. On this masterpiece, KISSIN' DYNAMITE celebrate timeless arena rock of international calibre, which with its remarkable density of hits makes the Bon Jovis of this world look “old” in the truest sense of the word.
Sarah Hayashi, (soprano)
This season, Sarah will return to Staatstheater Cottbus as Der Hahn in Attila Kadri Şedil’s children’s operaI. She looks forward to singing the soprano solo in Mendelssohn's Elias in a co-production of Singakademie Dresden and Nidaros Domchor Trondheim in Dresden's Kreuzkirche, Haydn's Die Schöpfung and Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium I-III with Kantorei Riesa, and the title role in Handel's Semele with Studio Chor Berlin at the Kammermusiksaal of the Berlin Philharmonic. She, with her baroque ensemble Chaconne Ensemble, debuted at the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen with a program of Händel chamber cantatas. She made her German debut in 2021 at Theater Erfurt where she has performed Susanna and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, Findus in Ramdohr’s Petersson und Findus, Tante Edla/Jiri in Leipold’s Mio Mein Mio, Adele in Die Rache der Fledermaus, and Aufseherin in Elektra. During the pandemic, she sang Le Feu in the critically -acclaimed, award-winning film of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges produced by Vopera with the London Philharmonic. Other roles include Blonde/ Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Bronx Opera, Zerlina/Don Giovanni for Bare Opera in New York City, Despina/Così fan tutte for Seastar Opera, Olympia/Les contes d'Hoffmann with Arbor Opera Company Michigan, and Euridice/Orphée aux Enfers with Bel Cantanti Opera and Bearwood Opera.
Ilja Ruf
Ilja Ruf is a pianist, singer, clarinettist and composer. Building on his classical training, he works in a broad stylistic field ranging from jazz to pop, tango, klezmer and orchestral music. He has already received important jazz awards and nominations for record prizes, including the IB.SH-JazzAward from JazzBaltica, one of the most important jazz promotion prizes.
His new album ‘Halftime Show’ was released in October 2024 in a classic jazz trio line-up with Hannes Pries and Niklas Müller. Feature soloists are Nils Landgren, with whom Ilja Ruf regularly plays, and his father Bernd Ruf. In the album ‘Utopia - Dialogues in Jazz With My Grandparents’, released in November 2022, Ilja Ruf enters into a musical dialogue with the German jazz veteran and saxophonist Bernd Konrad.
Ilja Ruf has been playing and composing in the classical trio ‘ClariNoir’ for twelve years, which has received several awards for its stylistically open repertoire, including four nominations for the Opus Klassik 2020. The album ‘Tosende Stille - Beethoven: Das Heiligenstädter Testament’, for which Ilja Ruf wrote new compositions and arrangements of Beethoven's music, received special attention from audiences and critics as well as three nominations for the Opus Klassik 2023.
During his time at grammar school, he studied at the Pre-College of the Lübeck University of Music, then at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg. He also attended songwriting courses at Berklee Online and took private lessons from jazz pianist Richie Beirach. In 2023/2024 he studied at the Berklee College of Music.
Bernd Ruf
Bernd Ruf is one of the pioneers in the field of classical crossover. Nominated for a Grammy in 2001 for an orchestral production with Cuban jazz musician Paquito D'Rivera as conductor, he has pursued his musical credo of bringing together different musical genres and cultures over the decades. Since 2003, Bernd Ruf has conceptualised and conducted the annual open air event Bridges to Classics at the Handel Festival in Halle. As a professor, Bernd Ruf heads the popular music, jazz and world music department at the Lübeck University of Music. Specialising in symphonic crossover projects, he has worked in jazz, rock and world music with Jon Lord (Deep Purple), Roger Hodgson (Supertramp), Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, the African musician Patrick Bebey, and for more than 20 years as a clarinettist in a duo with the bandoneon master Raul Jaurena.
T2O
T2O is a rock band that was formed in 2019 from members of the Stastskapelle Halle. Since then, they have regularly performed both solo and with orchestras in crossover projects. With "Curtains Up", the band has recorded an impressive album of rock classics. T2O is currently playing in the rock opera ADAM. New projects outside Halle are also in the pipeline for the coming years.