VITA
„As an interpreter she risks a point of view, not hiding behind the neutrality of the score.“
- Abendzeitung
The versatility of Johanna Soller's artistic work is reflected in her activities as a conductor, harpsichordist, organist and university teacher.
Rooted in historical performance practice, her passion for words and musical speech in particular forms the basis of her musical work.
Since the start of the 2023/2024 season, Soller has been Artistic Director of the Munich Bach Choir and Bach Orchestra.
She also established the baroque ensemble capella sollertia, consisting of a professional vocal ensemble and an orchestra on period instruments, with whom she organizes the Bach cantata series Cantate um 1715. One focus of the ensemble's work is the rediscovery of forgotten works from Bach’s environment. She is currently working on a complete recording of Johann Ludwig Bach's cantatas to be published with the label Ricercar.
„Harnoncourt’s Music as speech - here it becomes an event “
- concerti
Soller has a close collaboration with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, whose tour with Bach's St. Matthew Passion she conducted in 2024. She is a regular guest conductor both with baroque ensembles and modern orchestras, such as the Dunedin Consort, Munich Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta de Córdoba.
Future highlights include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the B’Rock Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, Opera North the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.
As a sought-after choral conductor and specialist for vocal music, she has rehearsed for ensembles such as the MDR Radio Choir Leipzig, as well as for conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Sir Simon Rattle. She was scholarship holder in the Conducting Forum of the German Music Council.
Soller is also in demand in the field of opera, where she has made a name for herself as Maestra al cembalo. She was previously engaged as a Studienleiter at the Theater of Wien. Her debut as an opera conductor she made with Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto. From 2019 to 2023, she was Musical Director of the Munich Chamber Opera, where she conducted productions such as Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. In the upcoming season 25/26 she will lead productions at Opera North and the Kammerakademie Potsdam.
„(...) Johanna Soller played the harpsichord in a heart-rending way. With her movements, it was as if she carried her feelings into the sounds: she brought the harpsichord to new life. “
- Hessische Niedersächsische Allgemeine
After holding teaching positions for basso continuo playing and score reading, Soller has been teaching her own oratorio class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich since 2023.
An accomplished basso continuo player, she performs with ensembles such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Vox Luminis. Her chamber music partners include artists such as Kristin von der Goltz. Sonatas by Fontana and Castelli have been released on CD with oboist Tamar Inbar.
In 2016, Soller was appointed organist at Munich's oldest parish church St. Peter. Solo concerts have taken her to major organ concert series, including the cathedrals of Riga, Passau, St. Gallen, Paderborn, Stuttgart's Stiftskirche, St. Lorenz Nuremberg, the Philharmonie im Münchener Gasteig and Munich's St. Michael, and in 2025 to the ION festival in Nuremberg and St. Jacobi Hamburg.
„(...) her stylistic range and her unique combination of emotion, focused energy and intelligent probing of the score “
- Bavarian Arts Award 2020
She studied conducting with Michael Gläser, harpsichord and historical performance practice with Christine Schornsheim, as well as organ and church music with Edgar Krapp and Bernhard Haas in Munich, graduating with honors. Master classes with Philippe Herreweghe, Hans Christoph Rademann, Frieder Bernius, Pierre Hantaï and Menno van Delft complemented her training.
Soller is a prizewinner of the Prague Spring International Music Competition and a scholarship holder of the German Music Competition and was supported by the Federal Selection of Concerts by Young Artists and Yehudi Menuhin - Live Music Now.
In 2020 she was awarded the Bavarian Art Promotion Prize, in 2023 the Church Music Prize of the Bücher-Dieckmeyer Foundation and the Eugen Jochum Prize for Conductors.
Stand 2025