About
Kai-Uwe Jirka (*1968) has been Professor of choir direction and head of the state and Dom choir at the University of the Arts Berlin since 2002, and since 2006 he has also been artistic director of the Sing - Akademie zu Berlin.
Jirka graduated from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. From 1999 to 2001 he was a choir director at the State Opera in Lower Saxony, in 2001 he made his debut as an opera conductor.
Jirka has worked with such Ensembles as the Berlin radio choir, the vocal consort of Berlin and the Hilliard Ensemble as well as with orchestras such as the lower Saxony state orchestra and the kammerakademie Potsdam. He took over choral studies for conductors such as Ton Koopman, Kent Nagano, Claudio Abbado and Sir Simon Rattle.
Since 2006, together with the Lautten Compagney Berlin, he has performed numerous unknown works of the 18th century from the archive of the Sing Academy for the first time. Another focus of his work is contemporary music. Under his direction, works by composers such as Luke Bedford, Jörg Birkenkötter and Katia Tchemberdji were premiered.