Kai Wessel

He graduated with honours from the Lübeck Academy of Music (theory of music with R. Ploeger, composition with Prof. F. Döhl, singing with Prof. Ute von Garczynski). During his studies he attended classes in the performance of baroque music at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (with René Jacobs). Between 1984 and 1990 he won numerous prizes, including a special award from the German Theatre Society for the best interpretation of a contemporary work of music (Berlin 1988) and an award at the Musica Antiqua Flanders Festival in Bruges. He was a recipient of a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and from DAAD (he studied with Peter Kooy in Hilversum, Holland). He assisted René Jacobs in the preparation of operas of P.A. Cesti, F. Cavalli and C.W. Gluck for the International Festival of Early Music in Innsbruck, for WDR Radio and for the National Opera in Hamburg. A leading countertenor in the world, he is frequently invited to music festivals and opera theatres (Freiburg, Basle, Barcelona, Nice, among others). He has recorded over 40 albums with conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, William Christie, Jordi Savall, Ton Koopman, Michael Schneider, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas McGegan, Reinhard Goebel, Sigiswald Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt, Michel Corboz, Hans-Werner Henze.
He teaches singing and baroque performance practices at the Academy of Music in Cologne and at summer courses in Austria and Poland.