[5] He was the chorus director of the Bayreuth Festival from 1972 to 1999, collaborating with conductors including Karl Böhm, Dennis Russell Davies, Eugen Jochum, Carlos Kleiber, James Levine, Peter Schneider, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Georg Solti, and Silvio Varviso.
In 1972, he led the choir in Tannhäuser, directed by Götz Friedrich and conducted by Erich Leinsdorf alternating with Horst Stein, and in further years by Heinrich Hollreiser (1973 and 1974) and Colin Davis (1977 and 1978).
In concerts with Lorin Maazel, he prepared the chorus for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Fidelio, and Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz.
[2] Among others, he prepared the boys for a 2000 recording of Bach's St Matthew Passion conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
[13] In 2008, he was awarded the great cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana).