Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723. One of the unalterable customs in Leipzig was that the high voice parts in church music should not be sung by women, a widely applied consequence drawn from the counsel of the Apostle Paul. For the church music he performed in Leipzig, Bach was dependent on particularly gifted young singers from his Thomanerchor (the choir of the city's Thomaskirche) for the high parts in his cantatas and oratorios; if there were no suitably talented boy soloists in the choir for particularly difficult solo parts, he would resort to professional singers, who offered their services as "altos" or "sopranos" by recourse to special singing techniques.

Male alto Zvi Emanuel-Marial, born in Israel, now performs internationally at festivals and in major opera houses. He began his musical training as a horn player. The celebrated singing teacher Marianne Fischer-Kupfer motivated him to train his voice in the alto register and took charge of his voice training. In the concert hall, Zvi Emanuel-Marial appears regularly with the legendary organist Matthias Eisenberg (solo programmes and oratorios such as Handel's Messiah, also solo cantatas, motets, the Passions and Christmas Oratorio by J.S.Bach).