Baritone Sebastien Noack, together with his accompanist Manuel Lange, performs Ballads and Romances by German composer and mathematician Hans Sommer. Today it has mostly been forgotten that one of the founding fathers of German music copyright, Hans Sommer, whose real name was Hans Friedrich August Zincken (1837-1922), was also a prolific composer. Although the close connection between music and the educated middle class was taken for granted, the act of composing ? either as a dilettante or as a professional ? was still considered a hazardous venture. Hardly anyone could devote themselves entirely to composition without additional income from performance or teaching. Sommer took his first composition lessons in the 1850s, while studying mathematics and physics with Prof. Julius Otto Grimm in Gttingen; and then with Adolf Bernhard Marx during an extended stay in Berlin. After returning to Braunschweig (Brunswick), his home town, in the 1860s, he pursued his studies with Wilhelm Meves (1808-1871). Finally, in 1881, at the age of 47, Sommer withdrew into a more private existence to devote himself entirely to his musical inclinations ? thereby abandoning his established scientific career. German baritone, Sebastian Noack, began his vocal studies in 1992 in Berlin, first with Dietmar Hackel and later with Ingrid Figur, and graduated with distinction. Several master classes with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Aribert Reimann completed his training. He was awarded 1st prize at the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang in Berlin 1996, and in 1997 he won 2nd prize at the International Song Competition at Wigmore Hall in London as well as 1st prize at the Paula Lindberg-Salomon Competition. Sebastian Noack performs regularly with conductors Philippe Herreweghe, Christoph Eschenbach, Gustav Leonhardt, Helmuth Rilling, Frieder Bernius, Hans-Christoph Rademann, and Daniel Reuss, and ensembles Freiburger Barockorchester, RIAS Kammerchor, Concerto Kln, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin and Cantus Colln.