Yosemeh Adjei

Born in Nuremberg with Ghanaian roots, Yosemeh Adjei "grew up" as a Windsbacher choirboy and participated in numerous record and television productions as well as concert tours at the age of ten. He then trained as an instrumentalist on the trumpet and became a member of the WDR Radio Orchestra. During this time he also studied singing with Kai Wessel at the Cologne Academy of Music, graduating with distinction, and shifted his musical focus back to singing. Important sources of inspiration for his musical development were personalities such as Andreas Scholl, Charles Brett and Thomas Quasthoff.

Yosemeh Adjei was a finalist of the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb and a prize winner of the international Early Music Competition in Bruges. Subsequently Detlev Glanert composed for Yosemeh Adjei the music for the WDR radio play “Orlando furioso”. This composition was later published by Random House, New York. In the following year, he made his debut in Handel’s “Athalia” with La Statione Frankfurt at the Halle Handel Festival and has since been a sought-after soloist in his field.

Since then, the Altus has made guest appearances at renowned venues including KKL Lucerne Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, De Singel Antwerp, Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid, Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Oper Bonn, Saxon State Opera Dresden, National Theater Mannheim, Theater am Gärtnerplatz Munich , Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, Early Music Festival of Bruges, Music Festival La folle journée de Nantes, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Schwetzingen SWR Festival, Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, Ruhr Triennale Bochum, Bach Festival Leipzig as well as the Handel Festivals of Göttingen, Halle and Karlsruhe, to name but a few. He has sung under renowned conductors such as Helmuth Rilling, Andrea Marcon, Denis Comtet, Laurence Cummings, Nicholas McGegan, Reinhard Goebel, Konrad Junghänel, Michael Hofstetter, Wolfgang Katschner and Alessandro De Marchi.

He thrilled a large audience in Japan in Bach's "Mass in B Minor" under Morten Schuldt Jensen during a concert tour and can also be heard regularly under him in Denmark and Germany. Under Christopher Hogwood he could be heard in Handel's "Brockes Passion" at the Bachfest Leipzig. At the Bachwoche Ansbach he participated in the programme "Wohl dem, der den Herren fürchtet" -Music of the Reformation in Franconia- with the Windsbacher Knabenchor (BR live recording, CD production). With Handel's "Messiah" he was on a tour of Spain with the Orchestra Barocca Catalana, which took him to the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid, among other places. In 2019 he sang a solo programme of Handel arias under Joseph Bastian with the Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg. In the same year, the alto appeared with the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle in concert performances of the rarely performed sacred opera "Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo" by Emilio de' Cavalieri in the role of Piacere, and was a repeated guest at the Bachfest Leipzig as well as at the International Gluck Festival in the narrative concert "Im Reich der Schatten". A CD production with this programme took place in September 2020. A tour of secular music by J. S. Bach followed in 2020 with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging. This concert program appeared on DVD as part of the project "all about Bach" (a video recording of Bach's oeuvre by the Bachvereninging). In 2023/24 he can be heard in concerts with the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle, with the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock in Paris, with the Leipzig Chamber Choir in Handel's "Messiah" in Copenhagen and Malmö, and in a concert performance of the opera "La Lotta d'Hercole con Acheloo" as part of the Steffani Festwoche in Hanover.Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo“ von Emilio de‘ Cavalieri in der Partie des Piacere zu erleben, war wiederholt beim Bachfest Leipzig sowie bei den Internationalen Gluck Festspielen in dem Erzählkonzert „Im Reich der Schatten“ zu Gast. Eine CD Produktion mit diesem Programm erfolgte im September 2020. Mit der Nederlandse Bachvereniging folgte 2020 eine Tournee mit weltlicher Musik von J. S. Bach. Dieses Konzertprogramm erschien im Rahmen des Projekts „all about Bach“ (eine Videogesamteinspielung des Bachschen Oeuvres der Bachvereninging) auf DVD. In 2023/24 he can be heard in concerts with the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle, with the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock in Paris, with the Leipzig Chamber Choir in Handel's "Messiah" in Copenhagen and Malmö, and in a concert performance of the opera "La Lotta d'Hercole con Acheloo" as part of the Steffani Festwoche in Hanover.

Yosemeh Adjei has appeared in numerous leading and title roles of the baroque repertoire, including the title roles in Handel's operas "Ezio" at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival, "Siroe" at the Göttingen Handel Festival (CD production), "Riccardo Primo" with the Hassler Consort, as well as the roles of Tamerlano in Vivaldi's "Bajazet" and Pompeo in Vivaldi's "Farnace". In addition, he also participated in various world premieres, e.g. as Anfione in Adriana Hölszky's "HYBRIS/Niobe" at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival and as Nibbio in Lucia Ronchetti's opera "Mise en abyme" at the Semperoper Dresden.“ mit dem Hassler-Consort sowie die Partien des Tamerlano in Vivaldis „Bajazet“ und Pompeo in Vivaldis „Farnace“. Daneben wirkte er auch in verschiedenen Uraufführungen mit, z. B. als Anfione in Adriana Hölszkys “HYBRIS/Niobe“ bei den Schwetzinger SWR Festspielen und als Nibbio in Lucia Ronchettis Oper „Mise en abyme“ an der Semperoper Dresden.

In 2018 he appeared in the title role of Gluck's "Orfeo" at the Nuremberg International Gluck Festival. In 2019, Yosemeh Adjei sang the leading role of Valmont in the opera pastiche "Vivaldi - Dangerous Liasons" with arias by Antonio Vivaldi and Vanni Moretto in a co-production of the Nederlandse Bachvereniging with Oper2Day, which took him to various theatres in the Netherlands, including the Royal Theatre The Hague, Theatre Rotterdam and the Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam. In 2021 he made his role debut in the title role from Handel's "Giulio Cesare" at the Wuppertaler Bühnen (director: Immo Karaman) and in 2022/23 he appeared among others at the Staatstheater Mainz in the title role from R. Ayres' "Peter Pan", where he will also return in 2023/24 as Peter Pan. He is also a guest at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern as Hamed in "Hamed and Sherifa" by Zad Moultaka. 2021 gab er sein Rollendebüt in der Titelpartie aus Händels „Giulio Cesare“ an den Wuppertaler Bühnen (Regie: Immo Karaman) und war 2022/23 u.a. am Staatstheater Mainz in der Titelpartie von R. Ayres‘ „Peter Pan“ zu erleben, wohin er auch 2023/24 wieder als Peter Pan zurückkehrt. Des weiteren gastiert er am Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern als Hamed in „Hamed und Sherifa“ von Zad Moultaka.

Yosemeh Adjei is involved in various CD/DVD productions, including for the Sony BMG and ARTHAUS labels.

He is a lecturer in baroque singing at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig.