Two women, one passion – our love of classical music has brought us together. One expression of this passion is the ‘Ensemble Berthilo’, our vocal quartet, which Zsófia Csákány founded a few years ago and with which we organise concerts of sacred and secular music.
With ‘musica pura’ we are now breaking new ground: At the centre of our concerts is the pure experience of art – the joy of music and of literature and the visual arts, which have always been closely associated with it.
We want to make art work – and invite you to join us on a journey of discovery in the borderland between the arts and, above all, in the marvellous Markgräflerland region: The historic hall of Gutshof Güntert, built in 1741, will be home to the concert series, as will the numerous wonderful historic churches and other special places that are just waiting to become ‘places of sound’. We are looking forward to the discussions after our concerts over Markgräfler sparkling wine and wine: Cheers to very special concert experiences!
Zsófia Csákány was born in Transylvania (Romania) and studied organ, piano, musicology and choral conducting at the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj, Romania.
Her musical path led her to Germany to the organ class of Max Reger and Johann Sebastian Bach specialist Prof. Christoph Bossert at the Trossingen University of Music. After completing her master’s degree in organ performance, she went on to complete a master’s degree in early music and historical keyboard instruments.
Her mentors include Judit Gábos, József Birtalan, István Angi, Christoph Bossert, Hans-Ola Ericsson and Edoardo Bellotti. Her artistic career has also been shaped by numerous masterclasses in choral conducting and organ with Paolo Crivellaro, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Harald Vogel, Jean-Claude Zehnder, Zsigmond Szathmáry, Eric Ericson and Helmut Rilling.
Her concert tours have taken her to Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Algeria, Sweden, Norway, Serbia and France. She has been cantor at St. Cyriak, Sulzburg, since July 2019.
Edda Güntert (*1976) studied musicology, literature and Romance languages and literature/Spanish in Freiburg and Madrid and completed her doctorate in 2005 on the interplay between music and poetry in Robert Schumann’s “Scenes from Goethe’s Faust”. In 2006, she received the Gerhart Baumann Prize for interdisciplinary research from the University of Freiburg for her dissertation, where she taught as a lecturer for several years. Scholarships from the DAAD, Landesgraduiertenförderung Baden-Württemberg and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes supported her in her academic education. After years in the Freiburg Vocal Ensemble and the Camerata Vocale Freiburg, the classically trained singer now enjoys singing alto in the Ensemble Berthilo.
Having grown up with the organ and flute, she is interested in music, literature and art of all genres and eras, but especially vocal and baroque music. Since 2022, she has been working at the BDB Music Academy in Staufen as a scientific advisor for educational topics – at musica pura, the graduated writing consultant is responsible for concert introductions as well as texts, advertising and PR.