Members | Membership

Gerd Ulrich Bormann

Voice, Berlin University of the Arts | Director
The founder and director of the Nichidoku Liederkreis/Song Circle is a native of Hamburg, where he attained degrees in both School Music and Vocal Pedagogy from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Hamburg. He also holds a degree in Vocal Performance from the Berlin University of the Arts, where he studied with Paul Lohmann and Ernst Häfliger. He has taught voice at the Berlin University of the Arts since 1976.
In addition to his native Germany, he has performed oratorio and lied recitals all over Europe as well as taking part in opera productions. Since 1989 his busy concert and pedagogical schedule includes performing and teaching in Japan at the Schubert Society Osaka, the Mukogawa University and the Kansai Nikikai Opera Society. Numerous song recitals in Japan. From 2004 until 2008 annual Master classes at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki Finland. Invitation 2010 for a masterclass in Metropolia Academy Helsinki

Kumiko Okabô-Bormann

Voice
After studying and attending master classes at the Soai University of Osaka, she began her career as an opera and lied- singer in 1982. Specialising in the German repertoire, she has sung in lied recitals as well as in the operas of Mozart, C.M.v.Weber, R.Wagner, J.Strauss and R.Strauss but also Verdi and Puccini. She performed more than 160 times the soprano part in Beethoven 9th. Her debut as opera singer was Dorabella /Cosi fan tutte, lateron she performed as Fiordilighi,
She taught voice as the Soai University of Osaka until 1992. In 1987 she was awarded the Bunkacho (Agency for Cultural Affairs) scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Culture. Taking part in the Wagner Gala of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra alongside with Bundschuh, Goldberg und Brendel, she sang Lohengrins Elsa and Tannhausers Elisabeth. In 1994 she was awarded the city of Osaka´s cultural prize in recognition of her outstanding vocal achievement. Her roles include the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Agathe in der Freischuetz, Rosalinde in Fledermaus, Siglinde in Die Walküre, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, Kundry in Parsifal as well as the Marescialla in Rosenkavalier, 2003 under the direction of Günther Krämer, again in 2008 under the direction of A. Homoki (Komische Oper Berlin) in Biwako Hall and Yokohama.
She is now concentrating on performing Japanese art songs in Europe and Japan.
She is a member of the Kansai Nikikai Opera Society. In 2004 she became a member of the faculty for vocal performance at the Berlin University of the Arts and taught there until 2009.

Prof. Sayali Dadas

Piano, Berlin University of the Arts
Born in Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan, she completed her studies in both solo and accompanying piano performance at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (now Berlin University of the Arts) where she studied with Gerhard Puchelt (accompanist to Erna Berger and Hans Hotter). She has been a member of the faculty for vocal performance at the Berlin University of the Arts since 1980, where in addition to coaching and accompanying students and faculty, she teaches lied interpretation. She has accompanied and collaborated in the master classes of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann, Judith Beckmann, Nina Dorleac and Hans Hotter. Sayali Dadas also maintains a busy concert schedule where in addition to solo recitals; she performs in chamber music concerts with singers and instrumentalists as well as recording with members of Berlin´s leading orchestras.

Boris + Isabella Dornbrach

Communication Designers
study at the university of the arts Berlin (faculty visual communication) with main focus New media with Prof. Joachim Sauter and Corporate Design eith Prof. Michael Klar, and Bellas Artes, Barcelona.
Afterwards working as Senior Artdirectors, Creative Directors at different design agencies. Teaching orders in the UdK Berlin, Lette Verein Berlin (Department photography), University of fine arts Dresden.
In April, 2001 foundation of the agency for communications design büro-d in Berlin.
Honorings: DAAD best Univeryity-Website, Berliner Type (Corporate Design Price), Artdirectors Club (Corporate Design Special price), and more.
Consulting and Designing for the Nichidoku Liederkreis since 1997.

Prof. Ingrid Figur

Voice, Berlin University of the Arts until 1999
Born in Berlin, she studied Music teacher for Highschool, German Literature and Voice at Berlin Concertos as Soprano in Germany and other countries with Lied and Oratorio, Participation in Opera Productions. Teaching since 1974 at the University of Arts Berlin (before HdK) as professor until 1999. Masterclasses in the USA, the Bach-Academy in Stuttgart/Germany, the Hochschule of Music Leipzig and The „Cursos Internacionales Maneul de Falla“ at Granada, Spain.
Students with international career, all of them winning prizes in renown international competitions: Claudia Barainsky, Bogna Bartosz, Stella Doufexis, Ursula Hesse, Chrstine Schäfer and others. Working with singers of different opera houses. Among others Anna Korondi from the Komische Oper Berlin, Prizewinner of the International 45th ARD Competition and Ofelia Sála, Opera Leipzig and Deusche Oper . Berlin. Sebastian Noak won the first prize 1996 at the VdmK Competition.

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Fladt

Music Theory and Musicology, Berlin University of the Arts
Born in Detmold, he first studied Composition and Music Theory with Rudolf Kelterborn and then continued his studies in Berlin where he studied Musicology, Philosophy and Literature. He completed his doctoral studies with Carl Dahlhaus in 1973. In 1981 he became professor for Music Theory at the Berlin University. In 1996 - 2000 he was guest professor at the University of Music Vienna. As well as publishing articles on music between the 15th and 21st Century, he composes and has been awarded numerous prizes for his works, in Berlin the Karl-Hofer Prize in 1985 and at the Munich Opera Competition the Carl-Orff Preis 1994/95 for Salomo.

Chikako Fujita

Born in Kobe, Japan she was since the age of 14 taking part on Master classes of Prof. Jörg Demus in Austria and Japan. After finishing school in the Music Secondary School of Nishinomia she studied Solopiano with Prof. Rudolf Meister and Prof. Michael Hauber, after that she gave her emphasis to the accompaniment of lied and studied Liedinterpretation and Chambermusic with Heike-Dorothee Allardt, Ulrich Eisenlohr and Prof. Michael Hauber.
During her studies he already worked as Correpetition in the Voice Master class of Prof. Edith Jaeger. Furthermore she was instructed as an Accamponist for Lied through Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Prof. Uwe Heilmann and Prof. Semion Skigin.
Aside of continuos participation in Lied and Chambermusic concerts she toured as pianist together with the World-Youth Orchestra, the German south-west Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern, The Statephilharmonic of Rheinland-Palatinate, and the Gewandhausorchestra Leipzig touring the USA 2007 under the baton of Riccardo Chailly.
Chikako Fujita was honoured with the renown price of DAAD (German academic exchange) for outstanding achievement of foreign students and was awarded a scholarship by the Richard-Wagner Society. Since 2008 Chikako Fujita is Teaching Repertoire and performance for Singers at the States Highschool of Music Mannheim.

Prof. Christiane Güther

Speech and Elocution, Berlin University of the Arts
Born in Halle, she began her training in Voice and Speech Therapy in Jena. Thereupon she completed her studies in Sprechwissenschaft (Language and Speech) at The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. She has been active in the field of speech and elocution training as a therapist, working with television news reporters, as well as a teacher, where she taught at the Humboldt University Berlin. She has been an elocution teacher for singers as well as theologians since 1975. She became professor for Speech and Elocution at the Berlin University of the Arts in 1994, where she works with student vocal pedagogues, as well as singers. She also teaches the course: Working with the Art Song Text: from exact thinking and feeling to plastic articulation and mood in the voice.

Matthias Heiling

Voice, Otto-Falkenberg-Schule
Born in Saalfeld/Thuringia he studied Voice and Voicepaedagogy at the Hochschule of Music Leipzig with Prof. Kurt Seipt. After singing at the Landestheater Dessau as lyric baritone he left the DDR towards West Germany, continuing his career as lyric baritone in Saarbrücken, than teaching at the Hochschule für Musik Saarland, since 1992 teaching singing and voice education at the Otto-Falkenberg-Schule Munich. 2005 Guest professor at the Mozarteum Salzburg

Seiya Hirashima

Piano, Kunitachi College of Music, Showa University of Music as well as the Toho Gakuen School of Music
Born in Nagasaki, he continued his studies in Stuttgart and Zürich, where he studied with Konrad Richter and Irwin Gage after attaining a degree in piano performance at the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo. His musical collaboration with the soprano Sylvia Geszty has led to concert tours in Germany and Hungary. In addition he collaborated with and coached singers at the Luzern State Theater for three years, before turning his attention to teaching lied accompaniment at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo as well as accompanying numerous lied concerts in Japan.

Maki Ishii

Voice
Maki Ishii, geboren in Tokyo, studierte von 1985 bis 1989 Gesang an der Musashino Academia Musicae bei Yoshiko Okumura und Reiko Noguchi. Anschließend absolvierte sie dort die Magisterklasse, die sie 1991 mit der Magisterprüfung abschloß. Darüberhinaus studierte sie bei Takamichi Teshima, Prof. Carlheinz Tuttner, Gerd Ulrich Bormann und Prof. Ute Niss. Als Altsolistin sang sie u.a. die Messe von Mozart, die neunte Symphonie von Beethoven. 2001 sang sie "Pierot Lunaire" von Schönberg erstmals auf Japanisch (Kansai-Dialekt). Im gleichen Jahr trat sie als Solistin bei einem Konzert der Unesco in Sibenik (Croatia) auf. Maki Ishii ist Mitglied des Tokyo-Chamber-Theaters.

Dieter Soltau

Born in Kiel, Germany he worked for a long time as teacher in primary and secondary schools before studying voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Hamburg. After his studies long year career as Tenor in Oratorios and for more than 25 years voicetrainer of the choir at the St. Michael’s Church in Hamburg. Founder and director of the opera company “Kleines Musiktheater Hamburg”. Since 1997 in concern of the office of the summeracademies of “Nichi-doku Liederkreis”

Liana Vlad

Piano, University of Arts Berlin
Born in Rumania she studied piano at the University of Arts Berlin with Prof. Klaus Hellwig from 1995 until 2002, taking Masterclasses with György Sébök, Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Férénz Rados. Finishing her Studies with the Concert Exam in Dresden in 2005. Already during her studies she focussed especially on vocal repetition with singers and worked with Voice Students and renown Voiceteachers. She took courses with Prof. Aribert Reimann, Prof. Axel Bauni and Prof. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Since 2002 teaching assignment for Liedinterpretation and vocal repetition at the UdK, since 2004 Assistant of Prof. Axel Bauni for “The contemporary lied”, since 2005 additional teaching assignment at the University of Music and Theater Hanover.

Prof. Regina Werner

Gesang, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig
Born in Zwickau she studied voice- and voice pedagogy at the Hochschule für Musik ›Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy‹ Leipzig
One year before she graduated in 1973 from the Hochschule ›Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy‹ Leipzig with a Diploma (degree) in voice and vocal pedagogy, she had already been named one of the winners of the International J.S.Bach Competition.
From 1974 until 1987 soloist at the Gewandhausorchester zu Leipzig (Kurt Masur).
Collaboration with Leipzig’s St.Thomas Boys Choir in performances of cantatas and oratorios in Europe and Japan. Guest in the opera houses of Leipzig, Chemnitz and Halle, as well as at the Comic Opera in Berlin and the State Opera Dresden. In these theatres she sang the roles of Susanna in ›The Marriage of Figaro‹, Gilda in ›Rigoletto‹, Sophie in ›The Rosenkavalier‹, Marzelline in ›Fidelio‹, Norina in ›Don Pasquale‹, the Queen of the Night in ›Magic Flute‹, and Adele in ›Die Fledermaus‹, among others.
She was also involved in a long-standing collaboration in the field of Baroque music with the formation ›Concentus Musicus Lipsiensis‹, and the Händel Festspiel Orchestra in Halle, among others.
Ms. Werner displayed her extensive Lied repertory in numerous recitals with a repertoire of more than 400 songs, particularly in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus.
Since 1987 voice teacher at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater ›Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy‹" Leipzig, 1992 Professorship. Her Students sing at opera houses in Germany and other countries and per form concerts with renowned orchestras. Regina Werner is also a jury member for various vocal competitions, such as the National Vocal Competition (Bundeswettbewerb für Gesang). Since 2008 Master classes at the Sorbonne, Paris.

Yoshitaka Zenjô

Deputy Directo | Piano, Osaka Kokyo Daigaku Fusaku Koko
Upon completion of his studies in 1985 at the Osaka College for Music, he participated in Dalton Baldwin´s master class in piano accompaniment in 1986. Thereupon he was awarded the first prize for piano at the Lizuka Music Competition. Since 1987, he has performed solo and piano performances with, among others, the Telemann Orchestra and the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed regularly with the Kanazawa Orchestra Ensemble, which is made up of Czech musicians, since 1993. He is Olivera Miljakovicz´s concert pianist on her Japanese tours. Furthermore, he is head of the Faculty of Music at the Osaka Technical College. In 1996 he was awarded the First Prize for Art Song Accompaniment at the Settsu Ongakusai Music Festival. He can be reached at the following email address: