Notable performances in the past few years have included Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony (Lucerne Symphony Orchestra/Axelrod), James MacMillan’s St John Passion in King’s College, Cambridge (BBC Concert Orchestra/Cleobury), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Volkov), the UK première of Sinfonia da Requiem by Jeajoon Ryu (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Nowak), Frank Martin’s Easter oratorio Golgotha (BBC Concert Orchestra/Cleobury), Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (Philharmonia Orchestra/Maazel), and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Noseda).  

In 2012, the Chorus took part in performances of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem (Philharmonia Orchestra/Dohnányi), Britten’s War Requiem (Philharmonia Orchestra/Maazel), Elgar’s The Apostles in King’s College, Cambridge (BBC Concert Orchestra/Cleobury) and Mahler’s Second Symphony (Philharmonia Orchestra/Salonen). In the summer the Chorus took part in three performances of Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts with the Orchestre National de Lyon under Leonard Slatkin, and in September it opened the 2012-13 season of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra with a performance of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius under Jeffrey Tate in the Laeiszhalle, Hamburg.

In addition to concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra, future plans include a rare performance of Herbert Howells’ Stabat Mater at the Easter at King’s Festival in Cambridge.

Stefan Bevier originally studied singing and double bass at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, and obtained a scholarship from the Herbert von Karajan Foundation.  He was a member of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as well as a regular deputy for them under Herbert von Karajan. He studied singing with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Schuch-Tovini and Aribert Reimann, and conducting with the former Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Sergiu Celibidache. He has worked closely with many conductors of international stature, including Herbert von Karajan, Eugen Jochum, Karl Böhm, Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Colin Davis, Ricardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Christoph von Dohnányi and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

He is the Chief Conductor of the Festival Orchestra Berlin, the Baroque Orchestra Berlin, and is the founder and conductor of the European Vocal Soloists. He started working with the Philharmonia Chorus in 1999, and was appointed Chorus Master in 2010.