The Voices

Elisabeth Mücksch

soprano

Elisabeth was born into a musical family, took violin lessons at the Heinrich Schütz Conservatory in Dresden from an early age and was a member of various choirs, including the children's choir of the Landesbühnen Sachsen. At the age of 15 she received her first singing lessons with Ulrike Feilhaber in Dresden.

With her studies in Leipzig, the speech, language and voice therapist began her long-term membership in such renowned ensembles as the Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble (Arno Paduch), the Sächsisches Vocalensemble e.V. (Matthias Jung), the Collegium Vocale Leipzig (Michael Schönheit), the Bachconsort Leipzig (Thomaskantor i.R. Gotthold Schwarz) and the Gaechinger Cantorey Stuttgart. Concert tours with these ensembles have taken her not only to other European countries but also to Japan and Central America.

Elisabeth performs as a soloist mainly in the context of church music in Central Germany. Collaborations with conductors such as Gotthold Schwarz, Matthias Jung, Gregor Meyer, Michael Schönheit and Hans-Christoph Rademann provide important impulses for her musical development and continually awaken her interest and passion for old and new music.

She gained further musical impulses through guest engagements with the renowned vocal ensembles amarcord and Ælbgut. She also regularly substitutes as first soprano of the Leipzig vocal sextet Sjaella.

Her musical activities are characterized by great attention to detail, striving for precision and musical understanding. Elisabeth's vocal coaching is in the competent hands of Gesine Adler.

Since September 1st, 2022, Elisabeth is the soprano of Calmus.

Johanna Veit

alto

Johanna Veit comes from Stade in Lower Saxony, where singing and making music together was an integral part of family life. Her enthusiasm for vocal music developed early on - characterised by the choral work of KMD Hauke Ramm and the Stade Youth Organ Forum under the direction of Annegret Schönbeck, in which she participated for many years and later worked as a lecturer herself, as well as later through her time in renowned youth choirs.

After graduating from high school and completing a federal voluntary service at the Stade Organ Academy, she studied Protestant Church Music (Bachelor and Master) at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. There she received singing lessons from Martina Hamberg-Möbius and Prof. Jörn Dopfer and taught as a choral conducting tutor with Prof. Annedore Hacker-Jakobi. Masterclasses with Yuval Weinberg, Voces8, Stephen Connolly and Hans-Christoph Rademann, among others, rounded off her training. Together with Lukas Marhenke, she directed the New Chamber Choir Hamburg until 2025, which was founded in spring 2024 by young alumni of the Chamber Choir of the HfMT Hamburg.

Johanna worked as a church musician at the Paul Gerhardt parish in Hamburg-Winterhude, at St Peter's in Buxtehude and later as the second church musician at Hamburg's main church, St Katharinen. She is still the musical director of the Hamburg university church services there today. From 2022 to 2025, she was cantor at the parishes of Ohlsdorf-Fuhlsbüttel and St Lukas Fuhlsbüttel. At the same time, she worked as a freelance solo and ensemble singer with the Kölner Akademie für Alte Musik, the Norddeutscher Kammerchor, the Norddeutscher Figuralchor and the Rheinische Kantorei, among others.

Johanna has been a permanent member of the Calmus Ensemble since spring 2025.

Friedrich Bracks

tenor

Friedrich Bracks received his first singing education as a child at the boys choir Windsbacher Knabenchor, where he already sang as a soloist at that time. Afterwards, he studied acting with Suzanne Geyer in Munich, and continued his education at the two acting schools “The New Collective LA” and “TVI Actors Studios” in Los Angeles, USA.

During his time in Munich, he also studied singing with Ingrid Bettag and Peter Pöppel. In 2018, he participated in the “vielklang” masterclass and in 2019, in the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart as a soloist.

Besides his singing career, Friedrich has worked as a stage actor as well as a videomaker at the radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Focussing on his singing career, he specialized in early music, which led him to perform as “Evangelist” at the Stuttgarter Bach Festival conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann.

Friedrich has been working with numerous ensembles such as Kammerchor Stuttgart, Gaechinger Cantorey, Zürcher Sing-Akademie and the belgian soloist ensemble Vox Luminis on national and international stages. He was artistic director at the a cappella men's ensemble Ensemble miXtur. Starting in March 2020, Friedrich is the new tenor of the Calmus Ensemble.

Jonathan Müller Saretz

baritone

Jonathan Müller Saretz was born in Torgau in 1995. His parents - both church musicians - influenced him musically from an early age. At the age of nine, he took trumpet lessons with Wilfried Thoß at the Torgau Music School and later at the Music School in Leipzig. There he also gained his first orchestral experience in the youth symphony orchestra and in various brass ensembles. After many years of choir experience in Torgau, he dedicated himself to singing at the age of 17 and took lessons with Prof. Elvira Dreßen in Leipzig for two years. Jonathan has won several national prizes in the Jugend Musiziert competition, both on the trumpet and in singing.

After graduating from high school, Jonathan first studied media technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf (specialising in audio and multimedia). During his studies he gained practical experience in cultural management - for example at the KLANGVOKAL music festival in Dortmund, in the press department of the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf and in the media team of the Tonhalle Düsseldorf.

He then worked for several years as a cultural manager for various professional festivals and ensembles (including the E-MEX Ensemble for Modern Music) and supervised several choirs and ensembles in management and press and public relations.

Since 2017, he has received lessons from Mateusz Kabala, opera singer at the Aalto Theater Essen. There Jonathan sang in the extra choir since the 15/16 season and later also as a choir temp at Theater Dortmund. Jonathan received further impulses in choral and ensemble singing in the Landesjugendchor NRW, the vocal ensemble of the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf, in the Audi Jugendchorakademie and with Chorwerk Ruhr. Engagements for Bach's St. John Passion, the Christmas Oratorio and cantatas, the requiems by Mozart and Duruflé, among others, also distinguish him as a soloist.

Jonathan has been the baritone at Calmus since September 2022.

Michael B. Gernert

bass

Growing up singing and making music with the whole family, Michael Gernert (*1993) presented his musical talent very early on. He received his first piano lessons at the age of six, singing lessons at seven and violin lessons at thirteen.

As a member of the Windsbach Boys’ Choir he received extensive musical training. Within ten years he took part in more than 650 concerts and toured China and South America among other countries. In Würzburg he first studied singing in pre-college with Professors Bürgener and Hummel at the University of Music and joined several student and chamber choirs. Later, he switched to studying comparative linguistics with Spanish as an additional major at the University of Würzburg. He then spent a year and a half in Mexico City and was very active in the choral scene there.

Michael toured southern France and Portugal with the World Youth Choir in 2019 as well as Slovenia with the EuroChoir in 2021, participating in the Europa Cantat festival. He has sung with renowned choirs such as Kammerchor Stuttgart, Chamber Choir of Europe and World Choir for Peace.

Since September 2022, Michael is the bass of the Calmus Ensemble.