VITA
„As an interpreter she risks a point of view, not hiding behind the neutrality of the score.“
- Abendzeitung
Since the start of the 2023/2024 season, Soller has been Artistic Director of the Munich Bach Choir and Bach Orchestra, making her the first woman to succeed Karl Richter at the helm of this traditional ensemble.
Emerged from her 2013 founded Vocalconsort München, Soller established the baroque ensemble capella sollertia in 2019, 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.
„Conductor Johanna Soller deserves much of the credit for the positive overall impression, always impressing with her ability to control the breathing of her ensemble. “
- Münchner Merkur
Soller has a close collaboration with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, whose tour with Bach's St. Matthew Passion she will conduct in 2024 - with stops at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Grote Kerk in Naarden, among others.
As a sought-after choral conductor, she has rehearsed for ensembles such as the MDR Radio Choir Leipzig and the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, as well as for conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Sir Simon Rattle. As a scholarship holder in the Conducting Forum of the German Music Council, she has worked with ensembles such as the Bavarian Radio Choir and the Berlin Philharmonic Choir.
She also conducted the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and the St. Jacob's Chamber Choir as part of the renowned Eric Ericson Awards 2021 in Stockholm. In addition, she has worked with orchestras such as the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta de Córdoba and the baroque orchestra La Banda.
Engagements have taken her to the Göttingen International Handel Festival, the Thüringer Bachwochen, the Verbier Festival, the AUDI Summer Concerts in Ingolstadt, as well as throughout Europe and to Israel.
Soller is also in demand in the field of music theater, where she has made a name for herself as Maestra al cembalo. She was previously engaged at the Theater of Wien as Director of Studies where she oversaw a product of Handel’s Saul. She made her debut as an opera conductor 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 and Talestri by Maria Antonia Walpurgis and worked closely with Christopher Moulds and Laurence Cummings as Musical Assistant.
„(...) 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
Soller is an accomplished basso continuo player and performs as a harpsichordist and organist with ensembles such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Vox Luminis, the Zurich Singakademie, the Munich Hofkapelle and the BRSO Chamber Orchestra. 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, Alter 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.
„(...) her stylistic range and her unique combination of emotion, focused energy and intelligent probing of the score “
- Bavarian Arts Award 2020
After her first organ lessons with the Passau cathedral organist Ludwig Ruckdeschel, she studied choral 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 and work shadowing with Philippe Herreweghe (Collegium Vocale Gent), Hans Christoph Rademann (Gaechinger Cantorey), Frieder Bernius (Kammerchor Stuttgart), Pierre Hantaï and Menno van Delft complemented her training.
She held a teaching position for basso continuo and score playing at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich until 2023 and has been teaching her own oratorio class there since 2023.
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 Eugen Jochum Prize for Conductors and the Church Music Prize of the Bücher-Dieckmeyer Foundation.
Stand 2023