Conductor and violinist Thomas Hengelbrock has focused to an unusual degree on historical performances of Baroque music and on contemporary music, as well as mainstream repertory. He is the founder and director of his own groups, the Balthasar Neumann Choir and Ensemble, which specializes in both Baroque and contemporary music.
Hengelbrock was born on June 9, 1958, in Wilhelmshaven, in what was then West Germany. He studied the violin with Rainer Kussmaul, a member of the Berlin Philharmonic. Early in his career, he was active as a violinist in the cities of Würzburg and Frei...