Name Axel Bergstedt | Role Conductor | |
Ronja Räubertochter Ronjas Geburt - The birth of Ronia, the robber's daughter
Axel Bergstedt (* 1962) is a German conductor and composer currently living in Brazil.
He lived in front of the famous old Cathedral of Ratzeburg, a well known Lutheran church. It is a center of church music, and conductor and organist Neithard Bethke became the beloved teacher of the young Axel. Famous musicians like Peter Hurford or Helen Donath or the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields came to the cathedral, invited by Neithard Bethke. Later Axel studied Church Music and Conductor in Hamburg, with conductor Klauspeter Seibel and organist Heinz Wunderlich.
In 1985 he became the conductor of the Hamburger Bachorchester, dedicated to church music of the 18th century, associated with choir and children's choir. He is also the composer of the musical Ronja Raubertochter (book by Astrid Lindgren), with orchestra and 120 people on-stage, which premiered in 1994 in Poland and Germany.
In 1995/1996 he had a well documented participation in the album The Time of the Oath by the German power metal band Helloween, released in 1996. In 1998 he was playing a church organist who works in a prison in the German film "Schlange auf dem Altar" (The snake on the altar).
In 1994 he was also invited for the first time to Brazil. After marrying a Brazilian woman he decided to live in Belo Horizonte and Vitoria, in Brazil. In 2001 he started working on social projects in Brazil. In 2004 the Lutheran church of Brazil invited him for a new project in Cariacica, a region of simple workers. He wrote many compositions and arrangements for the new project. Well known are his "Louva ao Senhor" and "Aquecendo Coracoes", the Brazilian version of "Let our hearts burn", from his "Aquecendo Coracoes" CD. Another focus are translations of classical cantatas and oratorios as the Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, which had its premiere in Portuguese in 2009 in Brasilia. He is defending the point of view of the time of the Reformation, that protestant church music should preferably be executed in the national language.