Our Lecturer Team

Sabine Wüsthoff, Berliner Mädchenchor, Chorleitung

Sabine Wüsthoff

Conductor

Sabine Wüsthoff has been in charge of the Berlin Girls Choir since 1998. Born in Berlin, she successfully completed an education as a sports and gymnastic teacher, before she graduated studying music at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media which she finished with a state examination. She has been a freelance conductor, composer and music educator ever since. In workshops and master courses, she specialized as choir director and orchestra conductor.

Besides the Berlin Girls Choir, Sabine Wüsthoff also conducts the Schöneberg chamber orchestra which was founded by her, as well as the vocal ensemble Canto Berlin. She regularly gives courses for choir directors and conductors with the focus on body action and creativity. In 2003, Sabine Wüsthoff obtained the conductors’ prize of the International Johannes-Brahms-Competition Wernigerode, and in 2008, she won the first prize in a competition of composers of the RIAS Chamber Choir.

In 2015, the Berlin Choir association assigned the Mendelssohn-Medal to her for outstanding merits for choir music in Berlin.

Frederik Botthof, Berliner Mädchenchor, Chorleitung

Frederik Botthof

Conductor

Born in Berlin, he began cello lessons at the age of 10 and has since played in the Charlottenburg Youth Orchestra, the Lower Saxony Young Philharmonic Orchestra and was principal in the Hanover Young Symphony Orchestra.

He completed an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree (cello, singing, piano) and artistic-pedagogical training at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (HMTMH). Study abroad took him to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. This was followed by a Master’s degree in children’s and youth choir conducting at the HMTMH with Prof. Friederike Stahmer. Frederik Botthof attended various master classes, including with Prof. Andreas Felber, and was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Association Hanover and the Germany Scholarship. After completing his teacher training, Frederik Botthof now teaches at a secondary school in Berlin.

As a singer, he is a founding member of the vocal quartet Sonorus Quartett, a member of the Junges Vokalensemble Hannover and has been a phonation teacher there since 2018. 2016-2018 director of the YMCA Gospel Choir Bissendorf, 2017-2020 director of the Coro Piccolo at the Markuskirche Hannover. Since the school year 2022/23 children’s choir conductor with the Berlin Girls Choir.

Sara Magenta Dang, Berliner Mädchenchor, Sopran, Stimmbildung

Sara Magenta Dang

Conductor, Phonation Teacher

The soprano studied voice with Prof. Christiane Junghanns at the Musikhochschule in Dresden, with Prof. Nicolas Domingues at the conservatory in Montpellier, France, and with Prof. Elisabeth Werres and Prof. Anna Korondi at the UdK Berlin. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in music teaching at the UdK Berlin and chemistry at the FU Berlin.

She was a member and soloist of the Dresdner Kammerchor, has performed in Potsdam, Dresden, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Wroclaw and Paris, and has worked with Helmuth Rilling, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Rudolf Lutz and Ludwig Güttler.

In 2010 she was awarded the 3rd promotional prize of the city of Perleberg. At the 2014 National Singing Competition in Berlin, she won the special prize for concert engagements.

Teaching takes an important role for Sara Magenta Dang. In addition to being a private voice and piano teacher, she was a voice coach in the Cantate Children’s and Youth Choir from 2011-2018. Since 2019, she has been a lecturer for singing in the church music department of the Evangelical Church Berlin/Brandenburg/Silesian Upper Lusatia.

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Justine Eckhaut, Berliner Mädchenchor, Pianistin, Korrepetition

Justine Eckhaut

Accompanist

Justine Eckhaut studied after her graduation in Lille (France) at the CNSMD de Lyon in the class of Florent Boffard and of David Selig. She has performed at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Bregenz Festival and the Opéra de Lyon, among others. As an ensemble musician, she collaborates with the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin.

Since 2019, she has also accompanied the vocal class of Prof. Elisabeth Werres, Caitlin Hulcup and Prof. Aris Argiris at the Berlin University of the Arts. From 2019 to 2021, Justine Eckhaut was a participant in the Lied Academy of the Heidelberger Frühling International Music Festival under the artistic direction of Thomas Hampson.

In the 2021/22 season, in addition to her correptiton with the Small Concert Choir, the Concert Choir and the Vocal Consort, the Frenchwoman is the pianist and artistic director of the Berlied Festival.

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Carolin Frank, Berliner Mädchenchor, Sopran, Stimmbildung

Carolin Frank

Conductor, Phonation Teacher

Carolin Frank, vocal coach and voice teacher, studied music education in vocal pedagogy with the subjects singing and singing with children under Prof. Andreas Mohr and Prof. Thomas Holland-Moritz at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences from 2007-2011.

Already during her studies she started her work as a lecturer for voice training in the project “Toni sings” of the Chorverband Nordrhein-Westfalen and later as a choir teacher for different children’s choirs in the project “SING!” of the Rundfunkchor Berlin. From 2013-2019, Carolin Frank was subject group leader of the elementary level at the Paul Hindemith Music School Neukölln.

The focus of her work is on the holistic approach to voice training, in which the voice, breathing and the human being as a sound body form a unity.

In addition to her work as a voice teacher, Carolin Frank is active as a singer and receives regular impulses from baritone Christian Oldenburg.

Eleni Irakleous, Berliner Mädchenchor, Leitung Vorchor und Aufbauchor

Eleni Irakleous

Conductor

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Eleni Irakleous was born in Larnaca, Cyprus, in 1989 and nine years old, she started having piano lessons. She participated in the Tziarri International Piano Contest in Larnaka 2003 (2nd prize), the International Steinway Festival Hamburg 2004, the Steinway Pancyprian competition for young pianists 2006 (2nd price) and the Panmusica International piano competition in Vienna 2007 (3rd price). From 2009 – 2014, she studied piano and music education at the University of Arts in Berlin. Her passion has been singing ever since and in 2010, she founded “Duo Aenaos” which combines different styles of interpretation of Greek music. In 2011, Eleni Irakleous was awarded best singer of the traditional Cypriote air and won the 2nd place with her composition. In 2013, she composed the music for the play “Migronauts” of Elena Socratous. In 2014, she took part in the TV-Show “Voice of Germany” and participated in the national competition of Cyprus for the European Song Contest 2015 with an own composition.

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Johanna Knauth, Berliner Mädchenchor, Sopran, Stimmbildung Vokalconsort

Johanna Kaldewei

Phonation Teacher

Born in Dresden, she studied singing at the Berlin University of Arts with Beatrice Niehoff and at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre with Jeanette Favaro Reuter. She finished her studies in master courses and courses for interpreters. The young sopranist was a scholar of the Walter and Charlotte Hamel Foundation Hannover, the Foundation for Young Artists in Bayreuth and the Oper-Oder-Spree Academy.

She performed as a concert soloist in the Händel Festival Halle, the Munich Biennale, the Bad Hersfeld Festival and the International Festival of Church Music in Oslo. Concert tours took her to France, Poland, Italy, Latvia and Switzerland. In 2014, she made her opera debut as Romilda in Händel’s “Serce”. In the season 2017/18, she appeared for the first time in the Berlin Philharmonie performing in Mozart’s C Minor Mass.

In addition, she focuses on evening recitals. She also has been recognized by many prizes, last not least in 2017 in the podium for young concert solists of the German Concert Choir Association (1. prize) and in the 9th International Telemann competition in Magdeburg.

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Juliane Roever, Leitung Vorchor und Aufbauchor

Juliane Roever

Conductor

The choir director, music teacher and music theorist studied music at the Universität der Künste (UdK) Berlin and history at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin. She also studied music theory at the UdK under Prof. Dr. Hartmut Fladt. She received conducting lessons from Mirjam Sohar, Frank Markowitsch (choir conducting) and Tammin Julian Lee (orchestra conducting). Her musical education is complemented by a master class with Prof. Anne Kohler with a focus on choral music of the 20th century. She also received important impulses from Prof. Christian Grube and Sabine Wüsthoff.

From 2008 to 2014 Juliane Roever conducted the choir of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and in 2013 she founded the Junge Kammerchor Berlin. Since 2014 she has been teaching music and history at a grammar school in Berlin, where she also directs the school choirs. Since 2017 she has also been a lecturer for music theory at the UdK. Juliane Roever has two little daughters. She sang for many years in the Berlin Girls Choir.

Susan Wang, Berliner Mädchenchor, Pianistin, Korrepetition

Susan Wang

Accompanist

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Susan was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey in the USA. She began playing the piano at the age of seven with Dmitry Rachmanov. In 2005, she earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan in the class of Louis Nagel, and in 2007 she completed her Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music with Marc Silverman. In 2012, she and her twin sister Sarah completed a concert exam with honors as a piano duo at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre with Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl.

The piano duo Susan and Sarah Wang has performed in numerous concert halls and festivals, including the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the United States. It was awarded third prize at the ARD International Music Competition in 2010. In 2008 it won the 2nd prize in the prestigious “Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition”. In 2012 the twin sisters recorded and released their debut CD “American Crossings”. The piano duo enjoys devoting themselves to interdisciplinary projects in which they collaborate with composers, dancers, actors and singers.

Susan currently works as a piano teacher and répétiteur in Berlin and at the Goethe Gymnasium Schwerin.

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