Jan KobowJan Kobow, tenor, was born in Berlin in 1966 and initially studied the organ and church music, before taking up vocal studies at the Academy of Music in Hamburg under Sabine Kirchner. In 1998 he won first prize at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig. He performs with conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, John Eliot Gardiner, Gustav Leonhardt, Jeffrey Tate, Masaaki Suzuki and René Jacobs, and with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Jan Kobow feels a strong attachment to Lied, particularly German art song of the romantic period. He also performs with noted fortepiano players. In 2004 he sang at the Kissinger Sommer festival and was awarded the Luitpold prize. As an opera singer he sang the role of Pamphilius in Conradi’s Ariadne at the Boston Early Music Festival in 2003. In January 2004 he made his début at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. He performs regularly with the vocal ensemble Himlische Cantorey, of which he is a founding member.