Christa Bonhoff

Christa Bonhoff
Born
Westphalia
Other namesChrista Diwiak
EducationMusikhochschule Hamburg
OccupationClassical contralto
Organizations

Christa Bonhoff is a German contralto and mezzo-soprano singer.

Early life

Bonhoff was born in Westphalia.

Education

Bonhoff studied singing at the Hochschule für Musik Hamburg with Annie Schoonus.[1]

Career

Already as a student she joined the choir NDR Chor and worked as a guest for the Hamburgische Staatsoper.[2] She has concentrated on singing in oratorios.

She was the soloist in recordings of Bach's Christmas Oratorio (2002) and St John Passion (2006) with the conductor Michaela Prentl, the SebastianChor, Hubert Nettinger as the Evangelist, Gerlinde Sämann, Thomas Hamberger and Tim Hennis.

In 2002, she founded together with Monika Frimmer, Dantes Diwiak and Peter Kooy a quartet Tanto Canto to sing rarely performed music a cappella, with piano or with ensemble. The quartet recorded in 2005 excerpts from the collections Augsburger Tafel-Confect (short for: Ohren-vergnügendes und Gemüth-ergötzendes Tafel-Confect, in English: Augsburg Table Confectionery, Pleasuring the Ears and Delightful to the Soul) of the composers Valentin Rathgeber and Johann Caspar Seyfert.[3][4]

Bonhoff recorded psalm settings and other sacred music in Latin of Johann Adolph Hasse.[5] In 2004 she recorded sacred music of Charles Gounod with the chamber choir I Vocalisti, conducted by Hans-Joachim Lustig.[6] In 2005 she performed in St. Petri, Cuxhaven, in Honegger's oratorio Le Roi David. In 2007 she performed in Rossini's Petite messe solennelle, conducted by Matthias Zangerle.[7] She has collaborated with the choir Nordschleswigsche Musikvereinigung, in 2008 in Francesco Durante's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Confitebor and Rossini's early Messa di Rimini (1809), in 2009 in Haydn's Missa in angustiis and Bach's cantata Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172.[8] In 2009 she performed Haydn's Paukenmesse, celebrated in a church service for the 200th anniversary of the composer's death, in St. Petri, Hamburg.[9] In 2010 she appeared in a concert of the Universität Hamburg in the oratorio Die Glocke of Max Bruch.[2] In November 2010 she was the mezzo-soprano soloist in Verdi's Messa da Requiem in St. Martin, Idstein.[10]

Christa Bonhoff is married to the tenor Dantes Diwiak.

References

  1. ^ "Christa Bonhoff (Contralto)". bach-cantatas.com. 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Das Lied von der Glocke" (PDF) (in German). Universität Hamburg. 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  3. ^ "Rathgeber: Tafel-confect". arkivmusic.com. 2005. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  4. ^ "Rathgeber (1682-1750) Augsburgisches Tafel-Confect". musicweb-international.com. 2006. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  5. ^ "Hasse: Laudate pueri. Psalmen, Antiphonen, Concerto per due flauti". Carus-Verlag. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  6. ^ "Charles Gounod Musica sacra". rondomagazin.de. 2004. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
  7. ^ "Terminplan 2007" (in German). Matthias Zangerle. 2010. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  8. ^ "Aus der Zeitung" (in German). Nordschleswigsche Musikvereinigung. 2010. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  9. ^ "Termin-Archiv" (in German). Hamburger Bachchor. 2010. Archived from the original on 11 September 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  10. ^ Richard Hörnicke (16 November 2010). "Anspruchsvolle Aufgabe" (in German). Wiesbadener Tagblatt. Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 16 November 2010.