Christopher Berensen is a freelance performer of early keyboard instruments. He has worked intimately with the music of the early modern era since he was fifteen years old, at which age he had his own concerto grosso prepared and recorded by the British ensemble Florilegium as the result of a competition he had won.
He received a University Postgraduate Award scholarship in 2007 and 2008 whilst studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under the supervision of Dr. Alan Maddox, Philip Swanton and Dr. Neal Peres da Costa, and has completed a Master's Degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig where he studied with Nicholas Parle and Tobias Schade. Although he eschews participation in competitions, he nevertheless won 2nd prize and the audience-choice prize at the 2014 Biagio Marini chamber music competition with the ensemble “Tempora Felicia”. In 2015 he won the Westdeutsche Rundfunk special distinction prize at the H.I.F. Biber competition, where he was also named best basso continuo player in the competition. Notable ensembles he has performed with include the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Tallis Scholars, the Leipziger Barockorchester, the Leipziger Concert, the Sächsischen Barockorchester, the Neuen Bachischen Collegium Musicum, Merseburger Hofmusik, the Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig, Weimar Baroque, the Marais Project, Salut! Baroque, and he was a founding member of the German ensemble for period dance accompaniment, Les Matelots. In 2012 he founded the Rosentaler Barock Ensemble, which is regularly invited to perform at festivals in central Germany, and in 2014 premiered a hitherto unknown english opera, "The Honour of Arbaces", attributed to Lady Mary Stuart, the Countess of Bute. |
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