Tempora Felicia

In the spring of 2014 these three musicians, each of them residing in different corners of Germany, discovered a strong affinity with one another and the repertoire of the dawn of the baroque age. With a dash of decorum and a heaping of sprezzatura, they have come up with the recipe for a kind of interpretation that tantalises and satisfies, all the while remaining faithful to the historical sources. In the following warmer months, they took the second prize in the international Biagio Marini Competition, and were also chosen by the audience as their favourite ensemble. Together, Leopold and Chris took the West-German Radio Prize at the H.I.F. Biber Competition in St. Florian, Austria. A steadily growing number of concert opportunities signifies the modest but exciting arrival of "Tempora Felicia" on the German early-music landscape.

Leopold Nicolaus

Leopold Nicolaus was born in Berlin in 1994 and began learning the violin when he was seven years old. Between 2005 and 2008 he attended a music-focussed secondary school, and then transferred to Schloss Belvedere, the elite music school in Weimar. He studied for two years privately under Dragan Radosavievic, a lecturer at the University of Art and Music "Hans Eisler" in Berlin, and then in 2012 began performing exclusively on the baroque violin, and studying privately with the internationally renowned baroque violinist Midori Seiler. From 2013 to 2015, he studied at the Univerisity of Music "Franz Liszt" in Weimar. There his teachers were Midori Seiler, Nadja Zwiener, Stefan Mai, Olaf Reimers and Karsten Erik Ose. Additionally, he has visited masterclasses given by Sergio Azzolini, Stanley Ritchie, Alessandro Ciccolini, Jaap ter Linden and Jordi Savall. He has gained much orchestral experience performing with such ensembles as the Chemnitz Baroque Orchestra, the Hofakademie of Schloss Schwetzingen, Hofmusik Weimar, and the Mitteldeutschen Barock-Compagney. In August of 2014, Tempora Felicia, and ensemble of which he is a founding member won the second-prize and audience-favourite-prize at the Biagio Marini Competition in Neuburg an der Donau.
He received his most recent award in the summer of 2015 at the H. I. F. Biber Competition in St. Florian. This led to his Köln debut as part of the WDR 3 Funk-haus concerts. He plays an anonymous violin made in approximately 1750, probably under the influence of the Rome based violin maker David Techler. One of his favoured bows is a copy of a bow made in Salzburg in about 1660.

Claudius Kamp

Claudius Kamp was born in 1989 and started playing the recorder at age 4. In April 2013 he finished his diploma in Ancient music at the music university Franz Liszt in Weimar with 1,0. Claudius is studying the recorder with Myriam Eichberger and the baroque bassoon with Rainer
Johannsen, from Oktober 2013 he studies Ancient music (baroque-bassoon) at the music university HFK Bremen with Chistian Beuse. 

In Masterclasses with the most prestigious personalities in the field of Ancient music Claudius took many impulses: Maurice Steger, Maurice van Lieshout, Paul Leenhouts or Carin van Heerden. Maurice Steger is teaching him since more than 8 years. 

The young musician won a lot of first prizes with highest point at the German jeunesse musicale competition. Through invitation by Ton Koopman Claudius could play many concerts with both instruments in Israel, Minsk, Bogota, Medellin, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam Concertgebow with Maurice Steger and Capella Gabetta, at the Wiener Konzerthaus and at the Philharmonies in Berlin and Cologne. Within the orchestra L’arte del mondo he was in 2012 for the first time included in a cd recording with Handel’s ‚Israel in Egypt’.In November 2013 he won the 3rd price
at the Moeck/SRP Solo Recorder Competition in London. 

​Claudius plays already in orchestras and chamber music groups with both instruments, he is invited by „moderntimes_1800“ under Reinhard Goebel, „L'arte del mondo“, „Main-Barockorchester Frankfurt“, „Berlin Baroque“, „Capella Westfalica“, „Philharmonie Bonn“ , “Bach's Erben” , “Le Chardon” and others.

Chris Berensen

Chris Berensen is a freelance performer of early keyboard instruments. He has worked intimately with baroque music since he was fifteen years old, at which age he had his own concerto grosso prepared and recorded by the British-based ensemble Florilegium as the result of a competition he had won.
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He received a University Postgraduate Award scholarship in 2007 and 2008 whilst studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under the supervision of Dr. Alan Maddox, Philip Swanton and Dr. Neal Peres da Costa, and has completed a Master's Degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” where he studied with Nicholas Parle and Tobias Schade. 

Notable ensembles he has performed with include the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Leipziger Concert, the Sächsischen Barockorchester, the Neuen Bachischen Collegium Musicum, Merseburger Hofmusik, the Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig, the Marais Project and Salut! Baroque. He has also participated in masterclasses with such celebrated early music personalities as Jordi Savall, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Wieland and Barthold Kuijken, Eduardo Eguez, and Genevieve Lacey. 

One reviewer has written “Berensen’s playing throughout was a revelation. The harpsichord, which can so often come across as one-dimensional in concert performance, yielded a whole range of tones and textures. Berensen’s energy and commitment to the music was at all times elevating essentially supportive musical writing into surprisingly substantial artistic dialogue.” (4th April 2008 TimeOut Sydney). 

In 2012 he founded the Rosentaler Barock Ensemble, which is regularly invited to perform at festivals in central Germany, and in 2014 premiered a hitherto unknown english opera, "The Honour of Arbaces", by Lady Mary Stuart, the Countess of Bute. 

With Violinist Leopold Nicolaus and recorder player and bassoonist Claudius Kamp, he has performed since 2014 with Tempora Felicia. an ensemble dedicated to the chamber music of the early seventeenth century. Tempora Felicia won the second prize and audience prize at the International Marini Competition in 2014. 

Chris is also an official accompanist to the international Bach Competition in Leipzig, harpsichord teacher and repetiteur at the City Conservatorium of Halle „Georg Friedrich Händel“, and the Kleinmachnow Regional Music School, „Engelbert Humperdinck“ in Berlin.