Biography

Volker Hedtfeld was born in Dortmund, where he learned to play piano, organ, violin and viola as a child. At an early age he discovered his passion for singing. He initially began to study music education in Cologne, but several choral conducting seminars inspired him to study conducting. Encounters with Professor Gerd Müller-Lorenz (Musikhochschule Lübeck), Dr. Bodo Bischoff (FU Berlin) and Kurt Hofbauer particularly influenced him.

In Berlin he studied orchestral conducting with Lutz Köhler at the University of the Arts. Later he met Professor Jörg-Peter Weigle and continued his education with studies in choral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin.

In 1999 Volker Hedtfeld founded his first vocal ensemble: OPUS 99. In 2001 he took over the Cantorei of the Reformation Church in Berlin Moabit, where he was co-initiator of the Long Night of Choral Music (Lange Nacht der Chöre). In 2002 he founded the chamber choir OPUS VOCALE, with which he has since performed in Berlin and throughout Germany. Since 2007 he has been conductor and artistic director of the renowned Karl Forster Choir, with which he regularly performs major choral symphonic works in the Berliner Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Berlin.

Together with baroque violinist Monique Steffen, he founded the chamber orchestra ensemble callinus in 2009, which specializes in the historically informed performance of early music.