Sven Buller
Born in 1967
English horn and oboe
I started playing the oboe when I was 8 years old. It was a bit of a coincidence; my father had heard that they needed an oboe in the music school orchestra. I had no idea what an oboe was, but luckily I thought it was fun.
After high school, I studied at the Gothenburg Conservatory with the Norwegian oboist Erik Niord Larsen.
My first job was with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, from 1991-95.
In 1995 I won the position as solo English horn player in the Royal Danish National Orchestra. With the exception of a year as solo oboist in Malmö Symphony Orchestra 2003-04, I stayed in the Chapel until I joined the DRSO in 2012.
I really enjoy playing chamber music, especially baroque music.
I like music from most genres, the only thing I'm allergic to is Country & Western. When it comes to classical music, I have many favourite composers, it's impossible to choose one: Monteverdi, Bach, Mozart, Mendelsohn, Verdi, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Ligeti. Among others.
There are different kinds of difficult things to play. Playing a technically demanding solo piece is difficult, but a delicate performance in the orchestra can feel just as difficult, but in a completely different way. Perhaps the most difficult thing I've experienced in an orchestra is when I first had to play Wagner's Tristan and Isolde at the Royal Theatre. The lovely and very emotional conductor unfortunately had a way of showing the expression in the music by grimacing and tensing every muscle in his body. Not least at a dramatic point in Act 2, where, after a moment of total silence, I had to enter as softly and weakly as possible. That part is always really difficult, but looking at a conductor who looks like he's about to explode makes it almost impossible. It's been over 20 years, but I still remember my loud crack at the dress rehearsal. Fortunately, the performances went well!
Jens Rademacher
Copenhagen, 1972
1. Tenor
I began my singing career as a choir boy in the Copenhagen Boys' Choir. After my voice went into transition, I continued singing in the Copenhagen Boys' Choir's male choir and various amateur choirs until I was hired as a concert singer in the Radio Choir, as it was called back then.
I think it was in 1998 that I started in DR KoncertKoret.
In addition to my employment with DRKK, I am employed by Vor Frue Kantori, work as an assistant in the Opera Choir, but have also worked as a freelance singer with NDR Chor in Hamburg, among others.
I have a great passion for Wagner's operas, but otherwise I would say I'm very broad when it comes to musical genres. Bach's Christmas Oratorio is definitely one of my favourites, but I equally enjoy listening to Ozzy Osbourne and Victor Cornelius.
The hardest thing I've ever sung: It has to be Henze's 9th Symphony. I clearly remember that the only thing you had to rely on was your tuning fork and your sense of where the notes were. The choir sang in one direction and the orchestra played in a completely different one. At the same time, it is perhaps one of the greatest musical experiences in the modern repertoire that I have experienced.