Andreas Reize comes from a church- and music-loving family in Solothurn, Switzerland. He was a singer in the choir of St. Ursus Cathedral and decided to become a conductor during his time in the boys' choir.
In Bern, Zurich, Lucerne, Basel and Graz, Andreas Reize studied church music, organ, piano pedagogy and harpsichord as well as choral and orchestral conducting. The years of study with Johannes Prinz in Vienna and Graz, as well as the encounters with the pioneer of the original sound movement Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Zurich Opera House and the Styriarte in Graz.
In 2001 Andreas Reize founded the cantus firmus vokalensemble und consort and in 2006 the cantus firmus chamber choir. Since 2006 he has been music director of the "Oper Schloss Waldegg", a two-act opera presented by the cantus firmus consort, a biennial baroque opera production. The Monteverdi trilogy with "Orfeo" in 2017, "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria" in 2019 found with "L'incoronazione di Poppea" in 2021 it’s finish. The complete recording of the Naples version was released in the summer of 2022 by Rondeau Production Leipzig and was highly acclaimed by critics.
The recordings of "Le Devin du Village" and "Apollo e Dafne" with cantus firmus have been released on CD by the German label cpo. In 2019 and 2021 Andreas Reize stood on the podium of the Biel-Solothurn Theatre and successfully realised "Dido and Aeneas" by Henry Purcell and "Zaïs" by Jean-Philippe Rameau with great success.
Guest conductorships have taken him to the Mannheim National Theatre, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and the Swiss Chamber Choir. In addition, he was invited to perform with cantus firmus at the International Summer Festival of Early Music Innsbruck, the Migros Clubhouse Concerts, the Bachwochen Amsoldingen and to the subscription series of the Biel Symphony Orchestra. In 2007 Andreas Reize took over the choir of the St. Ursenkathedrale in Solothurn, the oldest and most modern boys' choir in Switzerland. For fourteen years Reize conducted the choir in which he himself had received his basic musical training, and he old and new paths with it. In 2016 and 2018, the Rondeau Production Leipzig label released the two Singboys CDs „Now sleeps the crimson petal" and "Sing a cappella!". From 2011 to 2021 he conducted the Zurich Bach Choir and the Gabrielichor Bern.
In autumn 2021, Andreas Reize was appointed by Leipzig's city council as the 18th Thomaskantor after Johann Sebastian Bach.
In the motets and services in the Thomaskirche, Andreas Reize conducts the Thomanerchor
and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Andreas Reize performs a Bach cantata every week. He experiments with different line-ups and instrumentations according to historical models. Reize is also responsible for the concerts and oratorio performances of the St Thomas's Boys Choir, not only in the Thomaskirche Leipzig, but also in music centres worldwide and at festivals abroad. In November 2022, Andreas Reize conducted the first foreign tour of the St. Thomas Boys' Choir after the Corona pandemic with concerts in Helsinki and Tampere in Finland. In addition to this come
regular television, radio and CD productions with the THOMANERCHOR Leipzig, such as the
the B minor Mass BWV 232 and the Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 by Johann Sebastian Bach in 2022.
A CD with pieces from the traditional Christmas carol evenings of the THOMANERCHOR was released in 2022. The first version of Bach's St. John Passion BWV 245 from 1724 was recorded by Andreas Reize with the Thomanerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin according to the current state of musicology in March 2023 and will be released in 2024.
In addition to his activities with the St. Thomas Boys' Choir, Andreas Reize has been a lecturer in choral conducting at the University of Music "Felix Mendelssohn"since March 2022.
In the 2024/25 season, Andreas Reize will make his debut as a conductor at the Leipzig Opera.