Rufus Beck Narrator
Sebastian Berakdar Piano

Rufus Beck calls himself a decathlete in the performing arts, having learned show business from the ground up as an actor, director, singer, author, speaker, presenter and producer.

In 1989, he was named “Young Actor of the Year” by “Theater Heute” for the role of Franz Moor in Schiller’s “The Robbers” at the Bavarian State Theater. After 16 years of permanent engagement, he made guest appearances at the largest German-language theaters (Berliner Ensemble, Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel, Kammerspiele München, Schauspiel Köln, Schauspiel Frankfurt and others).

He has also become known for his many theater, film and television roles, appearing in front of the camera in 70 television and 14 cinema productions.

Beck celebrated his breakthrough in film in 1994 in Sönke Wortmann’s DER BEWEGTE MANN, for which he received a BAMBI. For JIMMY THE KID he was nominated for the German Film Award in 1998. In addition to his theater and film work, Rufus Beck is also known as an interpreter and producer of audio books. Harry Potter fans know and love him on 124 CDs and he triggered a real audio book boom with 4 million audio books sold, for which he received 7 gold and 7 platinum records. He has produced 220 audio books over the last 20 years.

In 2003, 2012 and 2016 he was responsible as director, author and as a role magician for the various rock fantasy spectacles “Tabaluga” and went on tour in Germany together with Peter Maffay. In 2004 he staged the dance spectacle in Istanbul for the world tour of “Night of the Sultans – Pandoras Legend”. In 2006 he published the anthology “Geschichten für uns Kinder”. In March 2007, his non-fiction book “Children love fairy tales and discover values” was published.

That leaves his last major professional mainstay: his love of music and his guest appearances with orchestras and bands.

Sebastian Berakdar is regularly performing around Germany and Europe as well as on renowned festivals like Moselmusikfestival, Köthener Bachfesttage, SWR2 Musiksommer and Euregio Festival among others.

Sebastian has given concert in the most prestigious halls Germany as well as in Grazer Musikverein, Salle de la Sorbonne Paris, Hitachi Concert Hall Sendai and others. He has played with various orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Halle, Staatstheater Braunschweig and the Kammerorchester Wernigerode.

With a vast repertoire from Bach to Elliott Carter, chamber music has represented a main point in Sebastian’s career. His first CD with chamber music works for piano and flute was released in 2017 and was rewarded with ‘AUDIOphile Pearl’ award. The premiere recording of ‘Fantasie op.55’ for flute and piano by the Ukrainian composer Carl Frühling claimed special attention of the international critics.

Sebastian is prizewinner of numerous German-national as well as international piano competitions. Further more he is scholar of the German Music Foundation the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Foundation and the Hans-and-Eugenia-Jütting-Foundation.

Sebastian is especially dedicated to the music of Polish composers. In 2010 he received the ‘Chopin-Prize’ of the Chopin Society Leipzig. In 2017 he received the first prize the International Theodor-Leschitzky-Competition of University of Music in Hamburg. He has made live recordings for both German and foreign Radio and Television, such as for the NDR, MDR and SWR in Germany, Radio France or ORF radio in Austria. He is newly appointed artistic director of the Artistic Director of the renowned concert series ‘Stunde der Musik’ in Halle(Saale).

Sebastian profited of the work with distinguished artists such as as Lee Kum Sing, Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, Malcolm Bilson, Jean-Claude Pennetier and Matti Raekallio and took part in masterclasses of ‘Académie Musicale de Villecroze’ and the ‘Summer Academy of Mozarteum Salzburg’.

Sebastian Berakdar was born in Freiburg (Breisgau). He holds Bachelor and Master Degrees from Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover where he studied with Ewa Kupiec. Since 2017 he was continuing his studies at University Mozarteum Salzburg with Pietro de Maria.