Children's and youth choir

Sophie Bauer has been the director of the children's choir at Leipzig Opera since 2005 and founded the youth choir at the same theatre in 2007. She developed a comprehensive training concept for the choir, which has made it one of the best performing children's opera choirs in the German-speaking world. Under her direction, exciting projects and concert formats have been created in recent years, some in collaboration with the Musikalische Komödie orchestra and many other ensembles, which have delighted a wide audience.

She studied piano and school music at the « Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy » University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig, German and educational sciences at the University of Leipzig and orchestral conducting at the « Carl Maria von Weber » University of Music in Dresden. From 2000 to 2005, she was responsible for the Gewandhaus Children's Choir's work with young talent and is closely associated with this ensemble, and not only for this reason. Since 2010, she has held a teaching position for children's choir conducting at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre and is a sought-after lecturer in the field of children's choir conducting throughout the German-speaking world.

Mirijam Denz wurde in Weiden in der Oberpfalz geboren und ist als freischaffende Sängerin sowie als Gesangs- und Musikpädagogin tätig. Die junge Sopranistin kann mehrere Erfolge bei Wettbewerben wie Jugend musiziert vorweisen, wo sie unter anderem 2016 einen 2. Preis auf Bundesebene erreichte. Von 2015 bis 2018 war sie Mitglied der Bayerischen Singakademie und des Bayerischen Landesjugendchores.

Sie studierte Schulmusik mit Hauptfach Gesang an der Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar, zuletzt in der Klasse von Prof. Dr. Lena Haselmann-Kränzle. Neben ihrer Tätigkeit als Dozentin an einer Musikschule in Erfurt und – seit August 2025 – als Gesangspädagogin des Kinder- und Jugendchores der Oper Leipzig erweitert sie ihr Studium durch einen künstlerisch-pädagogischen Master Gesang an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig in der Klasse von Prof. Ilse-Christine Otto.

Zusätzlich vertiefte die junge Sängerin ihre künstlerische Ausbildung durch Meisterkurse bei Prof. Karl-Peter Kammerlander, Prof. Anne-Lise Soli, Thomas Heyer und Christian von Oldenburg. Als Mitglied und Solistin des Kammerchores der Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar sammelte sie umfassende Konzerterfahrungen im In- und Ausland. Dabei sang sie unter Dirigenten wie Jürgen Puschbeck, Oliver Weder, Nicolás Pasquet und Ton Koopman.

Mirijam Denz hegt eine besondere Leidenschaft für Alte Musik. So war sie bereits in der Rolle der Belinda in Henry Purcells Oper Dido and Aeneas sowie zuletzt im Rahmen des Festivals für Alte Musik Leipzig in John Blows Oper Venus and Adonis als Hirtin und Grazie zu erleben. Darüber hinaus fokussiert sie sich in ihrer solistischen Karriere besonders auf den Oratorien- und Konzertgesang.

Freelance music and dance teacher, studied elementary music and dance pedagogy at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Dance Pedagogy in Leipzig, completed a two-year course at the Alteglofsheim Music Academy while working and passed the state-recognised examination to become a choral conductor for amateur music-making for children and young people, has sung in various choirs in Leipzig for many years and is a member of Concerto Vocale under the direction of Gotthold Schwarz, was a singing student of Christine Maria Rembeck, among others, and continues to regularly attend her summer courses. Christine Maria Rembeck and still regularly attends her summer courses, has been teaching the Opera Mice for many years in early musical education with a focus on voice in the house and for some years now also freely organised groups both in the parent-child profile and in early musical education for children between the ages of 3 and 5, has been teaching elementary music education to the preliminary stage of the children's choir of the opera with a focus on voice for a year, teaches dance and movement in the intermediate stage of the children's choir of the Leipzig Opera.

Born in Leipzig. Studied piano and accompaniment at the University of Music and Theatre »Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy« Leipzig. Since 2005 she has worked as a repetiteur in the children's and youth choir, as well as in the rehearsal and dramaturgical accompaniment of all productions of both choirs. 2002-04 solo repetiteur at the Plauen-Zwickau Theatre, 2007/08 at the Musikalische Komödie Leipzig. Musical director at various theatres throughout Germany, e.g. »Die Dreigroschenoper« (Magdeburg Theatre), »Die Drei von der Tankstelle« (Kassel State Theatre), »Kreisler-Abend« (Gerhart Hauptmann Theatre Görlitz), »Wie es Euch gefällt« (Tübingen State Theatre).

She has worked as an arranger and composer for radio play productions for mdr Kultur, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, SWR and for theatre productions (Theater Titanick, Bremer Shakespeare Company, Oper Leipzig). She is also a musician in various formations of classical and popular music, such as the »Maria König Kapelle«, which she founded, the »Leschenko Orchestra«, which is dedicated to Russian tango, and smaller and larger classical ensembles.

The freelance choir conductor and music teacher Yannika Schad first studied school music in Frankfurt am Main and then choir and ensemble conducting in Leipzig with Roland Börger and in Riga with Sigvards Kļava and Andris Veismanis. Masterclasses with Wolfgang Schäfer, Morten Schuldt-Jensen and Patrick Russill as well as workshops with Morten Lauridsen and Nicol Matt complemented her training. She also received significant inspiration from Gregor Meyer.

She has already worked as an assistant with the Leipzig Oratorio Choir, the Leipzig Chamber Choir, the Taborkantorei Leipzig and the Robert-Franz-Singakademie in Halle. She has been a member of the GewandhausChoir Leipzig since 2018, for which she has already taken on rehearsals. With the Ensemble Tilia, which she founded, she has performed several successful concerts in Leipzig and the surrounding area, including Russian and Armenian literature. She has conducted the Max Klinger Choir in Leipzig since 2023. She is also co-conductor of the chamber orchestra »musica viva«.

Yannika Schad also works as a vocal coach and assistant with the choirs of the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra and regularly works with the Gewandhaus Children's Choir, the Gewandhaus Youth Choir, the Thuringia State Youth Choir and the Leipzig Opera Children's Choir, where she also teaches music theory and aural training. She was an assistant in the EU-funded OperaInCanto project, which concluded with several successful performances of the opera »Turandot« for children. Since 2022, she has also taken over the direction of the children's and youth choir Singspiel at Ensemble Consart.

Yannika Schad has been teaching in the children's choir at Oper Leipzig since 2021.