Thekla Jonathal

Thekla Jonathal was born in 1961 in Kiel. After studies of schoolmusic and music education at the “Musikhochschule in Lübeck” she was engaged in conductor studies at the international “Bach-Akademie” in Stuttgart under Helmuth Rilling. She participated actively in courses of conductorship and other high level education with Laszlo Heltay, Johan Duijck, Helmuth Rilling, John Eliot Gardiner and Eric Ericson.

Already at the end of high school Thekla Jonathal was directing quite a number of different choirs, among others the youth choir of the singer association of Schleswig-Holstein since 1981, with whom she performed difficult a capella concerts and also oratorios. Since 1992 she has also been the conductor of the mixed choir of SSH. She founded her own chamber choir “Belcanto” which is concidered to be one of the best choirs of Schleswig-Holstein, performing solid results in different contests.

The Hamburg Oratorio Choir elected her to be its conductor in 1998. Furthermore she is regularly asked to conduct national and international choir seminars for children, youths and adults.

In April 2002 she was decorated with the “Heinrich-Paulsen-Medaille”, the top award of the “Sängerbund Schleswig-Holstein”.

She works as an assistant professor for choir conductorship on specific seminars of “Sängerbund Schleswig-Holstein”, “Bildungswissenschaftliche Universität Flensburg”, and at the “Bundesakademie für kulturelle Bildung” in Wolfenbüttel.