Jan-Hendrik Rootering_

Jan-Hendrik Rootering is a German-born operatic bass, son of the Dutch tenor Hendrikus Rootering from whom he had his first lessons. After further study at Hamburg's Musikhochschule he began singing minor roles with the Staatsoper Hamburg and made a debut at the Bayerischen Staatsoper München in 1982 as the Spirit Messenger in Die Frau ohne Schatten. In 1987 he received the title of Bayerischer Kammersänger. Rootering was the bass soloist in the Beethoven Ninth Symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein in celebration of the fall of the Berlin wall—in the no-longer-divided city of Berlin—at Christmastime 1989.