classicalmusicdaily

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Promising Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Kseniia Nikolaieva joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Program for the Season 2020/22. Having a great passion for music and visual arts, Kseniia received two master’s degrees: firstly as an opera singer at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music by Pr. Alexander Dyachenko, and secondly as a designer-architect. Her first opera debut in Kiev Opera Studio was at the age of 19 in the role of Marta (Iolanta). After successful performances at competitions Neue Stimmen, Tenor Viñas Competition, Eva Marton International Singing Competition – she was invited to be part of the National Opera Studio program in London (2019-2020). Kseniia is honored to have been taught by Montserrat Caballe, Elena Obraztsova, Eva Marton, Anita Rachvelishvili, Nelly Miricioiu and many others. Kseniia is supported by a scholarship from the President of Ukraine, VERE MUSIC FUND and Opera Awards Foundation. From 2020-2022 Kseniia joined Jette Parker Young Artists Program in the Royal Opera House. At the start of the 2020/21 Season Kseniia made her Royal Opera debut as Bessie in Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny and Eboli/Mrs.Quickly in the Summer Performance. Opera engagements include Marta in Iolanta, Hivria in Mussorgsky’s Sorochinska yarmarka, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Maddalena in Rigoletto and Lubasha in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride (Kiev National Opera Studio), and debuts Sapho in Sapho with the Welsh National Opera and recital with the English National Opera as part of the National Opera Studio Program in 2019–20. Plans include Giovanna in Rigoletto, Annina in La Traviata, Emilia in Otello, Mother in Mavra, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly in the Royal Opera House season 2021-2022. Hello, Kseniia! Thank you for accepting our invitation, now that your country is passing through such difficult times! We are all watching the tremendous news every day and we’ve been praying for everything to stop. How are you living it and what do you think about the opera world’s reaction on the violent attacks towards Ukraine? Hello! I was very pleased to receive your invitation, thank you! Ukrainians are a very strong people! Our strength is in our spirit, in truth, in peace-loving, in our unity as a nation and our incorruptible love for our country! The first days of Russia’s attack on Ukraine were like a nightmare! I wanted someone to pinch you, you woke up and all this bloody hell ended! But, unfortunately, all this turned out to be a shocking reality… A reality that takes away human lives, even those that have just been born, destroys our cities with bomb shells, our homes, separates families, tramples on human destinies… The enemy invaded our home – Ukraine without an invitation, with pleasure walking with tank tracks all over her body, destroying everything that is dear to us, that we all created with such love for many years! I no longer recognize my native streets, parks, playgrounds – the cold hand of the barbarian murderers did not tremble before anything! Who are these people?… And are they people at all? The world of art feels life and all its manifestations very subtly, passing what is happening not only through the head, but also through the soul. That response, that support and empathy that the entire opera world is now showing in relation to the terrorist attacks of the aggressor on Ukraine, once again shows everyone the scale of madness, inhumanity and the complete absence of all moral and social values! The question on everyone’s lips today is: is the culture supposed to stay out of politics or to exercize its social function? How could art and artists help Ukraine at this point? When it comes to the killing of innocent, peaceful people and crimes against humanity, this is no longer politic!Could art and artists help Ukraine in this situation? Of course, yes! Only tears, feelings, words of condolence, support won’t help grief – you need to act! Everyone should act according to their abilities! Everyone chooses their own way of helping, I can share mine.

Now, in London, I participate in many charity concerts, in everything where you can collect financial assistance to support Ukraine! Every day I have at least one performance scheduled. In this situation, the site doesn’t matter to me. Yesterday, for example, I was contacted by the Covent Garden Street Performers Association and asked to perform at Covent Garden Square along with street musicians in front of a large number of people who came to support and donate money for Ukraine, and in the evening I had a performance scheduled at ROH. Of course, I agreed – in this situation, any methods are good! I communicate with sponsors, tell them the situation in Ukraine; in the evening, if there is no performance, I go to a protest, where I also perform. I do all this in order to raise funds and transfer them not to some large organization-fund that closes global problems, but to send them to volunteers in Ukraine, whom I know personally. Volunteers who are at the epicenter, in the occupied territories, who are engaged in the purchase of medicines for hospitals, volunteers who cook and buy food, orphanages, large families. I see all the reporting, so I understand that not a single penalty will be lost or spent incorrectly. Since there is not only an armed war against the Ukrainian people, but also an information war aimed at alerting people with false information and blocking sources of real information by Russia, social networks are also a platform for revealing the situation of real events, in real time. An artist is an influencer, each in his own scale, with his own team of admirers, who is able to pay attention to the problem, to open his eyes to the truth. Therefore, don’t think that this won’t work, even if your story, post will make at least one person think about standing up in defense and support of Ukraine – this is already a victory! reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

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In a conversation with ADELINA DIACONU, MATTEO MEZZARO talks about his experience on stage, his favorite roles, which artists influenced his development in the last years and also about the difficulties he had to deal with while performing. Being a very special voice, he manages to combine very well baroque technique and belcanto repertoire. If you want to know how you can have the best of both worlds, you should definitely read this interview! Graduated in renaissance singing, organ and composition, the tenor Matteo Mezzaro is also a specialist in baroque and romantic opera. He studying operatic repertoire with the tenor Sergio Bertocchi. He performs in many concerts and opera production under the guidance of such prestigious baton as Z. Metha, M-W Chung, V. Galli, D. Oren, F.I.Ciampa, J. Begnamini, P. Auguin, O. Dantone, G. Leonhard, C. Hogwood, T. Koopman, M. Radulescu, F.M. Bressan, Jordi Savall, F.M. Sardelli, G. Bisanti, G. Ferro, etc.., and stage director like M. Znaniecki, V. Borrelli, D. Michieletto, D. Abbado, F. Micheli, G. Salvatores, P. Pizzi, I Stefanutti, D. Krief, etc… Especially at the beginning of his career, he performed in many roles from barock opera repertoir as Demetrio in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Wielki Theater in Poznan, as Mitrane in Mayr’s Demetrio at Festival Opera Obliqua (first performance in modern times), as Mitridate in Vivaldi’s Il tigrane at Festival Opera Barga (LU) under the baton of Federico Maria Sardelli, as Uriel in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung at Festival de Santander, as Marchese della Conchiglia in Piccinni’s La Cecchina at Piccolo Festival of FVG, as Eurillo in Scarlatti’s Gli equivoci nel sembiante at Teatro dei Differenti di Barga. In a moment of his career he choosed to work much more with romantic repertoire. He performed roles like Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore at Teatr Manoel in La Valletta (Malta), Mozart in Korsakov’s Mozart e Salieri at Teatro Verdi di Pisa, Fracasso in Mozart’s La finta semplice for ASLICO, Conte Alberto in Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro in Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in festival ASLICO and in Piccolo Festival of FVG, Tenore Italiano in J.Strauss’ Capriccio in Metz (France), Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata for Opus Lirica in San Sebastian (Spain),Tenore Guglielmo in Donizetti’s Le convenienze e inconvenienze teatrali in Pisa, Lucca and Livorno, Beppe in Donizetti’s Rita at the Tearo comunale of Treviso, Camille de Rosillon in Lehar’s La vedova allegra in the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Cassio in the G. Verdi’s Otello at the Gran Teatro la Fenice of Venice, Beppe in the Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at the Teatro del maggio musicale fiorentino and Teatro Massimo of Palermo, Rinuccio in the G. Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the Teatro Filarmonico of Verona. Also active in symphonic and sacred field, he sang Mayr’s Requiem, J. S. Bach’s Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, Haydn’s Theresienmesse, Handel’s Messiah, Carolin Te Deum and Ode for S. Cecilia’s day, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Listz’ Via Crucis and Missa Solemnis, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle di Rossini, Britten’s Saint Nicholas, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex just to name a few. He made his role debut as Paolino in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto at Teatro Malibran in Venice in 2010. Ciao Matteo and thank you for accepting our invitation! I know that these days you are in the middle of several representations with L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti, in which you sing a role loved by any lyrical tenor. Tell us, please, what does the music of Donizetti means for you and how do you feel returning at Teatro Lirico di Cagliari? First of all thanks for the invitation. It’s a pleasure for me to have this conversation with you and your special Magazine. As you said in this moment I’m singing Nemorino in Cagliari, one of the roles I always dreamed to sing. I feel comfortable singing Donizetti’s music because it is good for my voice. In this music my voice finds the right ground to express itself.

It’s also a pleasure to sing it here, in Cagliari, because it’s an opera house that believed in me from the beginning of my career. Tell us some details about this fresh production of E’elisir d’amore, conducted by Roberto Gianola and directed by Michele Mirabella, with performances between 4-15 March 2022. How was the collaboration with the cast and the team? How did you perceive the directorial concept? I already sang this role with M° Gianola, so it was a pleasure for me to meet him again in Cagliari. I felt very lucky. I have wonderful colleagues who are friends and singers I’ve already work with. We’re working as a real team and think my Nemorino has improved also thanks to the interaction with the other characters of the opera. Which is the guideline of Nemorino – your character? How did you conceive your role, guided by the stage director of the show? I haven’t a possibility to work directly with Michele Mirabella, the original director of the production, because this is its third revival. Anyway I put on stage all my ideas about Nemorino: he is shy, that’s why he can’t tell her the truth, but when he is drunk, after the trick of Dulcamara, he looses every control and he puts all his expectation on the “Elisir d’amore”. He is an interesting character to portray because he faces many obstacles during his evolution during the opera. Nemorino represents youth, energy and that’s because he needs a dynamic actor on stage. I think that maybe It’s more stressful his theatrical aspect than his vocal request. Matteo, which artists influenced your career in the last years? I am referring here also at conductors and stage directors, who, these days, have a major influence on a performance. Have you ever had any kind of difficulties with these two entities? In my career there are many artists who influenced me, but there is expecially one above all: Graham Wick. I worked with him on Don Giovanni. The most important training to enter totally in the plot was finding the different meanings of the text. As concerns the conductors I worked really good with Maestro Mariotti.  I also expressed him my admiration for the process of the rehearsals and his research of perfection. During the latest years the theatres have the necessity to product as much as possible and many times there isn’t time to deepen. Today, probably the music is not more important than visual aspects of the production, but It always depends on the sensibility of the artists that are involved in the creation. Your vocal category is very appreciated, but still very hard to maintain in it’s full capacity all the time. Have you ever had difficult moments, when you felt that your voice was on the wrong path, technically speaking? How did you overcome them? I don’t know if it’s possible to maintain the full capacity of the voice for the entire career, but I know, in my experience, that the knowledge of the body and the voice are probably the must important way to make a long career. I mean, a lifestyle without excesses (healthy food, good sleeping) and a daily practicing of technique, is fundamental to build a solid career. If you know what is dangerous for your voice, you know how to manage all the obstacles. You started at a young age to study music, you refined your training under the guidance of important masters, you graduated in renaissance singing, organ and composition, and today you are a specialist in baroque and romantic opera. How important are for you belcanto technique and belcanto repertoire? The belcanto technique is really important as a foundation for the voice’s health. When I sang Baroque and Renaissance repertoire, I worked expecially about the interpretation and the singing style. I started to study technique with Maestro Bertocchi, and after this experience, I can say that it’s really important to know all the possibility of your voice before choosing the repertoire. Did you ever consider to share the accumulated knowledge with the younger singers, at masterclasses or, maybe, in Music Universities?

Yes, I thought about that,  but at the same time I’m worried about the responsibility on the students’ voice. I believe that when you study singing, if you improve it’s not only thanks to the teacher. Singing is a process you have to do together with your teacher and it’s not certain you will be able to do it. But I would be ready and happy, If someone will ask me any advices, to share my experience. How do you see the future of opera perfomances, having in mind the situation and changes from these two years? The future has to be live performances,  I don’t believes so much in streaming performances or other virtual solutions. I think perhaps the theatres have to invest in new music works, always bearing in mind that the theatre must stay in touch with the society’s sensibility. The theatre can be only a laboratories and experimental world. The music and the performance has to bring the audience in a dream. What does it mean for you to be successful? For me, during these years, the most important objective is to survive and to have the possibility to continue to work and live thanks to this job. I feel It’s important to continue to improve myself: this means success for me. Can you share with us some of your future engagements? Is there any role or musical piece that you dream to sing, but you don’t have yet the opportunity? In the next months I will sing alongside the Opv (Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto): I’ll perform in different concerts “Davide Penitente” by Mozart and the Rossini’s Stabat Mater. My next opera productions will be this summer, La Traviata and Turandot at the Arena di Verona Opera Festival 2022. There are other projects that are not confirmed yet. I dream and I’m working on the possibility to sing the roles of  Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia and in a next future Rodolfo in La Bohème. At the end of our interview, please tell us what is the most charming feature of opera? In my opinion Opera will have a future if we’ll continue to convey emotions to the audience. Sometimes, today, we work in a tight deadlines and we often go on stage not really sure. The audience has to be our first thought because without them we wouldn’t exist and our study-formation process too. Thank you, Matteo! In bocca al lupo! reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

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Vincenzo Costanzo joined the children’s choir of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples at the age of six. He made his debut as a soloist at the age of 11 in a contemporary opera, again at the Teatro San Carlo. He studied piano and solfège in a private school, and then obtained his degree at the local conservatory. At the same time, he graduated in Computer Engineering, continuing his singing studies with Marcello Ferraresi, and then perfecting his skills with Piero Giuliacci. Despite his young age, Vincenzo Costanzo has already won an Oscar Della Lirica (New Generation Tenor award) in Doha (Qatar) in 2014, and has had the opportunity to work with internationally renowned directors and conductors such as Myung-whun Chung at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and in Tokyo, James Conlon at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Emma Dante at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Daniel Oren and Franco Zeffirelli at the Arena di Verona and Liliana Cavani at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. His most recent engagements include Un Ballo in Maschera, Simon Boccanegra (Gabriele Adorno), Tosca (Cavaradossi), Maurizio Di Sassonia in Adriana Lecouvreur and Madama Butterfly (Pinkerton). Dear Vincenzo, thank you for accepting our invitation! Now you are at Sabbioneta, at Teatro all’Antica, for a new project: Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, alongside Elisa Balbo and Luca Micheletti. What can you tell us about this project? How did this idea come about? How is it going on so far? Hello, dear readers of OPERA Charm. A few days ago we finished the shooting of La Traviata in the suggestive theater of Sabbioneta. It has been a wonderful experience, but unfortunately I can’t release any information about it because the project has not been announced yet. I can only give you a little spoiler: the technology used for audio and video shooting is totally innovative and unprecedented. You’ll hear about it soon. To go a bit backwards: when did you feel for the first time that opera is your path and who are those who guided your first steps towards the stage? What’s the moment that you consider to be the actual beginning of your career? In my family I am the only musician and artist. I have felt a vocation within me since I was a child. I took my first steps on stage at the age of 9 at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples and I identify the beginning of my career with the victory of the Voci Verdiane award in Busseto at the age of 21. You had the chance to work with Daniel Oren, Franco Zeffirelli, Andrea Battistoni, Leo Nucci, Juraj Valcuha, Giampaolo Bisanti, Francesco Ivan Ciampa and many others. What each “gesture” has thought you and which of them had the most important impact on you as an artist until now? I have been lucky enough to be part of the opera world since I was very young and every single person I have met during my journey has enriched me as a man and an artist. I could name a thousand episodes that have made me understand the sacrifice and dedication necessary for this ancient art. reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

[classicalmusicdaily]

Sir John Tavener, a British composer who was heavily influenced by sacred and spiritual texts, was born on January 28, 1944, in London, England, and passed away on November 12, 2013, in Child Okeford, Dorset. Tavener received praise for making classical music approachable to the general public, despite some critics dismissing his work as light. John Tavener Tavener began composing music at the age of three and picked up the piano and organ. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where David Lumsdaine and Sir Lennox Berkeley served as some of his professors. With The Whale, an experimental cantata that received a well-received debut at the London Sinfonietta in 1968, Tavener made his first lasting impression. After he joined the Russian Orthodox church in 1977, his music drew from Russian, Byzantine, and Greek influences and became more inwardly focused. Tavener had a stroke when he was 36 years old, and Marfan syndrome, a genetic condition affecting the connective tissues, was discovered in 1991. Tavener compared composition to prayer and defined himself as more of a conduit to the spiritual realm than a composer, acknowledging that these experiences increased his dedication to his faith and to sharing it via music. His librettist was an abbess at an Orthodox monastery in North Yorkshire who served as his spiritual advisor. Tavener didn't start getting significant attention until halfway through his career. This was followed by Steven Isserlis' "icon in sound" for cello and strings, The Protecting Veil (1989), which was based on the Mother of God and had its world debut at the BBC Proms. It was described by the soloist as "a gorgeous, romantic piece of music; the first performance was one of the highlights of my concert life," and his recording from 1992 became a smash hit. Five years later, Tavener became a household name when his Song for Athene (1993) ended the Diana, Princess of Wales, funeral service that was broadcast live from Westminster Abbey. The celebrations that took place in the dome that is now known as the O2, on the Thames at Greenwich, in the final moments of the previous millennium partly overshadowed the significance of the choral composition A New Beginning. However, 2000 saw Tavener get a knighthood, have a music festival at the Southbank Centre in London, and have the world premiere of Fall and Resurrection, which explores the composer's signature themes of the end of the world and paradise. Tavener pushed the boundaries of his vision ever closer to the east and to eastern religions through the use of instruments like ram's horns, nay flute, and kaval (both types of folk flute). This is another defining impulse. The Prince of Wales, with whom Tavener forged a enduring friendship, was honoured in the dedication of the piece. His music gained the benevolent support of Prince Charles, who was particularly interested in his explorations of the universalist outlook on religion that the two men shared. Tavener was in demand and provided answers frequently despite having continuing health issues. He became more acutely aware of the perils of religious dogmatism as a result of the events of 9/11. Tavener urged world leaders to read the 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi, whose adage "sell cleverness, buy wonder" reflected what he was attempting to accomplish with his music, in a letter to the Times following the atrocity. He took a big chance by holding the seven-hour vigil The Veil of the Temple (2003) at the Temple church in London, but both the public and critics were extremely enthusiastic about this listening marathon. The work that truly embraced this outlook was his hour-long song cycle Schuon Lieder (2004) for soprano, string quartet, piano, and four Tibetan temple bowls. It was the first significant expression of his universalism on a grand scale. This is a masterpiece of miniature writing, setting 19 texts, despite its length overall. Tavener said he was especially proud

of it because of the path it was leading him down as well as the poetry it contained by the metaphysical poet and philosopher Frithjof Schuon. Tavener, the older of two sons, was born in Wembley Park, north-west London. He received a pious upbringing from his Presbyterian parents, Kenneth and Muriel, who also ran the family construction business and encouraged his musical abilities. Early on, he started writing music and learning the piano, and he was awarded a music scholarship to attend Highgate School in north London. Several works from the late 1960s and early 1970s were the consequence of Tavener's preoccupation with Roman Catholicism, including Ultimos Ritos, a 50-minute, large-scale choral meditation on texts by the Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross from the 16th century (Last Rites, 1974). Tavener took strongly to the metaphysical idea of "dying to oneself" as it was expressed by St. John. Tavener was convinced St. Thérèse of Lisieux would make a perfect subject for the Covent Garden commission when he first learned about her life in 1971. He immediately connected with her short life and physical suffering. Tavener experienced a stroke in 1980 that temporarily paralysed him. He didn't think he would ever compose music again and struggled with health the rest of his life. When he finally start writing again, he felt more at ease integrating his faith with his music since he thought the stroke had changed his creative perspective. It can be claimed that he fully discovered his voice with the radiantly lovely Ikon of Light (1984), for chorus and string trio. To a Child Dancing in the Wind (1983), a setting of Yeats' poem that he admired, was one of the few secular works he produced during this time. Additionally, it showed him coming back to the subject of lost innocence in childhood. His universalist focus continued to produce wonderful works in his later years, after he had attracted a large audience. Examples include the mass Sollemnitas in Conceptione Immaculata Beatae Mariae Virginis (2006) and the Requiem (2008) for cello, soloists, chorus, and orchestra, which had its world premiere in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. According to Tavener, "the soul of the Requiem is contained in the words 'Our grandeur rests where we cease to exist'," which are taken from Sufi poetry, the Catholic Mass, the Koran, and Hindu passages from the Upanishad. It is a story about a "journey" and becoming "one with God," much like virtually all of Tavener's music.

[classicalmusicdaily]

John Wilson is highly sought after on a global scale. He frequently performs in the UK with most orchestras, including the City of Birmingham Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, London Symphony, and London Philharmonic orchestras, both during their normal seasons and at festivals like Aldeburgh, Glyndebourne, and the BBC Proms. He frequently performed with the John Wilson Orchestra for many years, both domestically and internationally. Wilson has conducted many of the best orchestras in Europe, including the Royal Concertgebouw, Budapest Festival, Swedish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and DSO Berlin, as well as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Wilson has also conducted orchestras outside of Europe, including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. John Wilson Wilson conducted Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera during their autumn tour in 2016. Since then, he has conducted Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at the English National Opera and Massenet's Cendrillon at the Glyndebourne Summer Festival. Wilson and the John Wilson Orchestra performed extensively around the UK and overseas for many years. He restarted the Sinfonia of London in 2018. The Guardian praised their eagerly awaited BBC Proms debut in 2021 as "really remarkable," and they are now in high demand around the UK; this season, they will return to the BBC Proms, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and London's Barbican Center, among other locations. Wilson has a sizable and diverse discography, and his recordings with the Sinfonia of London have won numerous accolades and exceptional praise. For example, the recordings of the Korngold Symphony in F sharp (2020), Respighi Roman Trilogy (2021), and Dutilleux Le Loup (2022) have each won the BBC Music Magazine Award in the orchestral category for three consecutive years. The Times named the Respighi recording one of the three "really remarkable versions of this trilogy" of all time, together with those by Toscanini (1949) and Muti. The Observer called the Respighi album "Massive, bold and vividly played." Wilson, a Gateshead native, studied composing and conducting at the Royal College of Music, where he was elevated to Fellow status in 2011. John Wilson received the prestigious ISM Distinguished Musician Award in March 2019 for his contributions to music, and the Royal Academy of Music appointed him to the position of Henry Wood Chair of Conducting in 2021. British orchestral conductor John Wilson founded the John Wilson Orchestra in 1994. It is a jazz large band that plays with a symphony orchestra. It performs Rodgers and Hammerstein compositions as well as MGM musicals' original arrangements. Since 2009, the orchestra has participated in The Proms summer event each year. The John Wilson Orchestra has received praise for demonstrating how film musicals can also feature "genuine period performance”. Prior to the 2010 Proms season, John Wilson spoke with Rebecca Franks for the BBC Music Magazine and described how the orchestra's particular composition represents this goal: The orchestra has a solid 15 years together, and its personnel is exceptionally specialized. It is based on the traditional American contract movie orchestras. And that essentially consists of a rhythm section, four trumpets, four trombones, five double-saxes, and a rhythm section, all of whom are highly specialised in this manner, together with a brass, rhythm, and saxophone section from a dance band. A woodwind and French horn section are added on top of that. But I believe that finding the appropriate string players is crucial. A very high octane, high gloss, soloist type of musician is required. Not down, but up, is the string sound mixed. You perform at your peak. It takes a lot of practise to get the in-your-face, costly kind of string sound. The best players are required, but our nation is blessed with excellent orchestral musicians. Wilson is most

known for his Proms performances with a Hollywood theme, which have been a mainstay of the event for well over a decade. So it surprised some when, in February, he stepped in at the last minute to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra's world premieres of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony and a trumpet concerto by Mark-Anthony Turnage. Wilson clearly possesses more than just a deep understanding of the Great American Songbook. In 2002, Wilson began performing with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, primarily specialising in light music. "I've always done it and I've never apologised for it, but over the years they've slowly given me more freedom, and I've worked with them on everything from Eric Coates to Dutilleux. I appreciate that they didn't categorise me. At the Proms, he will lead the orchestra in conducting Vaughan Williams and Holst's Planets, another piece from the traditional repertoire that he promises to give new life to. I always perform The Planets in a unique way as a party piece. A performance is never more than a momentary reflection of your attitude toward a work on any given day. He credits his unusual upbringing—a working-class boy from Gateshead who fell in love with music (and Hollywood musicals in particular), taught himself to play the piano with the assistance of a musical mother, completed an A-level in music at Newcastle College, and created his first orchestra at the age of 16—for the diversity of his repertoire. Wilson continued on and joined the Royal College of Music as a "reluctant and not very good percussion player," but later switched to composition and conducting. I had a few professors who made sure I had the time and support to succeed. As a result, I went from being on the verge of being expelled at the end of my first year to winning the Tagore Gold Medal, the college's top honour for students. Just being left to do what I want. In 1994, while he was only 22 years old, he founded his own orchestra under that name. He claims, "It just happened by accident." "When I was still a student, I was playing the piano at the Grosvenor House hotel. I had tea in the afternoon with a violinist and attended jazz trio concerts in the evening. So I ended up with two groups of friends—classical musicians from the Royal College of Music and jazz musicians from the Guildhall and the Academy—and it was the marriage of those two sets of passions that inspired us to play this symphonic music with a jazz influence. We started getting offers for gigs and residencies as it transitioned from being something we did purely for fun.

[classicalmusicdaily]

Zoltan Nagy started his international career as the youngest ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera. Recognized by opera critics for his strengths in both dramatic and comic roles, he is regularly invited to perform as a guest artist in many of Europe’s leading opera houses. Zoltan’s most requested role is Escamillo (Carmen), a role he has performed in over 12 productions in theatres like Bilbao (ABAO), Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Teatro Grande di Brescia, Teatro Ponchielli di Cremona, Teatro Sociale di Como, RTE Orchestra in Dublin, Romanian National Opera Bucharest and Cluj, the Shaanxi Grand Opera House in China, the State Theatre of Nuremberg, among others. As a permanent guest soloist of the Hungarian State Opera, Budapest, Zoltan has been invited to perform the role of Guglielmo (Cosi Fan Tutte), Silvio (Pagliacci), the title role in Kodaly’s Hary Janos, and Schaunard (La Bohème), a title he has performed at Oper Leipzig, Opera de Nice, Singapore Symphony Orchestra (in concert), Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen, and Opera Ghent among others. Zoltan made his Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow debut with the role of Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro). He has sung Haraschta (The Cunning Little Vixen) at the Hamburg State Opera, Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus) at Teatro Verdi Trieste, Calchas (Iphigenie en Aulide) in Athens, Schmied (Egk’s Peer Gynt) in Theater an der Wien, where he also had the privilege to join Edita Gruberova for her gala concert. Zoltan made his debut as Alberich (Siegfried) at Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo. He sang Marcello in a new production of La Bohème at Teatro Comunale di Sassari, portrayed the role of Dulcamara in a new production of L’Elisir d’Amore at the Romanian National Opera, and was invited to give masterclasses at the Xi’an University of Music in China. Count Tomski was a role debut in a new production of Tchaikovsy’s Pique Dame at the Opera Festival Heidenheim accompanied by the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker. Zoltán returned to Oviedo for a new production of Götterdämmerung where he performed the role of Alberich. He sings the role of Theseus in the Essen Philharmonic’s CD live recording of Bohuslav Martinu’s Ariane directed by Czech conductor Tomas Netopil, released in 2016 on Supraphon. Zoltan has worked with conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Pinchas Steinberg, Ulf Schirmer, Renato Palumbo, Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski, John Wilson, Alejo Perez, Tomas Netopil, Guillermo Garcia Calvo, Leo Hussain, Marcus Bosch among others. Some of the stage directors Zoltan has collaborated with are: Peter Konwitschny, Damiano Michieletto, Inga Levant, Stefano Poda, Calixto Bieito, Paris Mexis, Thorsten Fischer, Georges Delnon, Maurizio Scaparro, and Immo Karaman. He has collaborated with the Vienna Philharmonic, Robert Schumann Philharmonie, RSO Vienna, Vienna Symphony Orchestra Singapore Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Romanian National Radio, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra among others. Zoltan studied at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in his hometown Cluj-Napoca under Professor Gheorghe Roşu. Upon graduation, he received a full scholarship to study at the prestigious Mozarteum University in Salzburg for a Masters degree in voice performance with Professor Boris Bakow. He has won prizes at various singing competitions including the Romanian National Song Competition, the Hariclea Darclee International Voice Competition, and “Debut”, the European Opera Singing Competition in Germany. In 2012 Zoltan participated in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project, and was then selected to sing in the Festival’s production of Das Labyrinth. Recent engagements included two new production of La Wally and Jenufa at Theater an der Wien, a new production of The Raise and Fall of the city of Mahagonny in Parma. Future higlights of his saison include a debut at Regio Torino as Escamillo, a ROH debut in La Bohème as Schaunard and a debut at Komische Oper Berlin in the Love of the three oranges as Leander.

Dear Zoltan, I’m so glad to meet you, this time in Italy! And I am very much looking for- ward to your house debut at Teatro Regio di Parma! What has been your relationship with the Italian theatres throughout your career and what does this event mean to you? In my nearly 15 years of international career I have been lucky enough to be part of some wonder- ful productions all over the world starting with Vienna until Singapore, but singing ocasionally in Italy, becomes each time on of the highlights of my season. My first ever concert accompanied by an orchestra abroad was actually in Palermo when I was 22. Since then I was dreaming about singing one day at Teatro Massimo which was closed for renovation those years. Several years later my dream came true and I was indeed portraying the role of Escamillo in that amazing opera house… I always used to say, that a part of my heart is in Italy. I’ve also worked on several occa- sions at Teatro Verdi in Trieste, one of them was a very funny production of Die Fledermaus (Dr. Falke) with the late Gianluigi Gelmetti conducting who I was very fond of. I have beautiful memo- ries of Sardegna where I’ve done a new production of La Bohème as Marcello, and later a Pagliacci as Silvio. Singing at Teatro Regio in Parma is an absolut honor for me not only because of the enormous tradition that surrounds this opera house but also because of the fact that I am a guest artist in a very unusual production that should make history in Parma. Tell us more about this opera, about the role that you’re about to perform and the produc- tion that will be on stage at Regio di Parma this month (April)? Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is an opera, although I like to call it rather music theater/ music play… composed between 1927-1929 by Kurt Weill on Bertold Brecht’s libretto, where I will interpret the role of Trinity Moses. When I first saw the score, I said to myself… “oh, I’ll deifinitely need some time to learn this music and get used to certain rhytms“. I’ve seen it challenging but I ended up having great fun singing this part and enjoying Weill’s geniality. The opera was a scandal on its premierere in Leipzig in 1930, presenting the decandece of the society which is more then actual nowadays where money is everything. I hope the audience will be receptive, of course, one should not expect a coservative staging for this type of music. I’m sure everyone will leave the the- ater whistling the Alabama song at the end of the performance… and realizing hopefully how en- joyable this music is. reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

[classicalmusicdaily]

The conductor Marin Alsop is highly regarded. She has led several of the most prestigious orchestras in Europe as well as the majority of the top orchestras in the United States. Marin Alsop On October 16, 1956, Alsop was born in New York. He attended Yale University for his undergraduate studies in music and the Juilliard School for his graduate work. Alsop, a well-known musician in the UK, has performed with many of the country's top orchestras. From 2002 to 2008, she was as Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony; she is currently Conductor Emeritus. She was appointed principal guest conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia in 1999. She has also performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BBC SO, LSO, and LPO. Alsop has promoted contemporary American music, releasing renowned recordings of pieces by Barber and Gershwin, among other composers. She established Concordia, a 50-piece orchestra with a focus on contemporary music, in 1984. She often leads Concordia at New York City's Lincoln Center. She performs violin jazz with her band, String Fever. Numerous awards have been given to Alsop, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences fellowship, the European Women of Achievement Award, and the Classical Brit Award for Best Female Artist. She set a new milestone in 2003 when she became the first person to simultaneously take home the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor's Award and the Artist of the Year Award from Gramophone. As the sole classical musician present at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland in 2006 alongside presidents, prime ministers, and CEOs of the most influential corporations in the world, Alsop accepted an invitation. She has appeared on NBC's Today Show, been featured as Person of the Week on ABC News, and been highlighted in Time and Newsweek. When Alsop was chosen as the first female music director of a significant American orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, in 2007, she created history. After winning her first position with an orchestra as associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony in Virginia, Alsop started conducting studies with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in 1988. She was appointed music director of the Long Island Philharmonic in New York and the Eugene Symphony in Oregon the following year. She took on the role of music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California, in 1991, and the Colorado Symphony in Denver, Colorado, in 1993. She held a number of positions with other orchestras as well. In 2002, she was appointed chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony in England, where she gained notoriety. She became the first woman to conduct a major American orchestra when she was appointed music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra beginning with the 2007–2008 season. American and current music were of particular importance to Alsop. In 2004, she led the New York Philharmonic in a semi-staged production of Bernstein's Candide as well as a revival of John Adams' Nixon in China with the Opera Theater of St. Louis, Missouri. Among other American composers, she captured the orchestral compositions of Edward Joseph Collins and Samuel Barber. Alsop received appreciation for her renditions of classic repertoire, notably Romantic works, as well as for her recordings of Brahms's compositions with the London Philharmonic. The Red Violin Concerto by John Corigliano was released in 2007 by Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony with Joshua Bell performing as the soloist. With the So Paulo Symphony Orchestra, with whom she recorded Sergey Prokofiev's seven symphonies, Alsop was chosen principal conductor in 2012. She took over as the main conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra after leaving that position in 2019. The first female to hold both posts was Alsop. The COVID-19 epidemic delayed

the start of Alsop's term until 2021, but she was chosen chief conductor and curator of the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, the following year. Numerous awards were given to Alsop, including the Stokowski Conducting Prize in 1988 and a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts, where she earned the Koussevitsky Conducting Prize the following year. She was selected Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine in 2003, the same year she took home the Conductor Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society. 2005 saw Alsop receive the Classical BRIT (British Record Industry Trust) Female Artist of the Year Award and become the first conductor to be selected a MacArthur fellow. She was the focus of the documentary The Conductor, which had its world premiere in 2021 in New York at the Tribecca Film Festival. Additionally, to being the first and only conductor to get a MacArthur Fellowship, Alsop was the first female conductor of the BBC's Last Night of the Proms and received the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum. She holds honorary doctorates from Yale University and the Juilliard School, in addition to numerous other accolades and academic positions, including 2020 Artist-in-Residence at Vienna's University of Music and Performing Arts, Director of Graduate Conducting at Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute, and Artist-in-Residence at 2020. She established the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship in 2002 to support and advance the careers of other female conductors. In 2020, the fellowship was renamed the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship in her honor. A documentary on her life called The Conductor made its debut at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, La Scala Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra are just a few of the notable international ensembles that Alsop frequently guest conducts. He also has long-standing relationships with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras. She led the "Global Ode to Joy" (GOTJ), a crowdsourced video production to honour Beethoven's 250th anniversary, in conjunction with YouTube and Google Arts & Culture. She urged the entire audience to express the Ninth Symphony's call for tolerance, unity, and joy in videos branded #GlobalOdeToJoy in collaboration with Germany's official Beethoven anniversary campaign and the top cultural organisations of five continents. A grand video finale featuring a GOTJ highlight reel set to a performance of the "Ode to Joy," featuring the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, the international Stay-at-Home Choir, and Alsop herself, marked the project's conclusion in December 2020, the month of Beethoven's birth.

[classicalmusicdaily]

From his debut as soloist in the choir of the Sistine Chapel to his role as leading tenor in the most prestig- ious theatres in the world, the career of Vittorio Grigolo is a story of talent, passion and dedication. Born in Arezzo and raised in Rome, he studies singing at the Sistine Chapel’s Schola Puer- orum cantorum, under the direction of Maestro Domenico Bartolucci. It is in the Eternal City that he first appears, at just 13, as the young shepherd in Tosca at the Opera House in Roma, beside Luciano Pavarotti. At 17 he makes his debut as a tenor, the following year he begins to make a name for himself abroad, interpreting Don Narciso in Gioacchino Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, at the Kammeroper in Vienna. At 23 years of age, in 2000, he is the youngest tenor to inaugurate the La Scala in Milan with the Verdi inspired concert to open the season. In just a few short years Vittorio Grigolo begins to perform on the most important stages in the world, under the direction of Riccardo Chailly, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Oren and Antonio Pappano. In 2010 he debuts overseas with the role of Rodolfo in La Bohème, which crowns him as the new star of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The repertoire of Vittorio Grigolo includes the leading roles in Italian and French opera: La Traviata, La Bohème, Rigoletto, Elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Faust, Roméo et Juliette, Manon, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Werther and many others. Vittorio, it’s so nice to meet you again in Vienna and, of course, to have the chance to chat about your most recent professional achievements! You are finally back to the Wiener Staatsoper… when was the last time you sang on this stage? Do you like working in Vienna? Did you enjoy singing in Tosca last month? We came on March 28th and we loved your performance! Congratulations! I didn’t perform in Vienna in the past two years and I came back at a very important time for me (but also a very difficult one, both historically and personally) with an opera, Tosca, that has always given me great satisfaction. It couldn’t have been better! Vienna is a special city for me and I have a very special relationship with its theater and its public. Indeed, these are pretty difficult times: it’s been more than a month since the war in Ukraine started. Your fiancée, Stefania, is Ukrainian and she was in Kiev when all of this started. It must have been so difficult for you to step on stage having these thoughts in your mind, but the show must go on, right? You chose to send a strong message during the standing ovations of your Tosca performances, through a T-Shirt. In the past, in 2010 if I remember correctly, I wore a T-shirt at the Royal Opera House in London with the words “Ciao mamma, Ciao papa! Vi voglio bene!” and later, not long ago, I made one for my love Stefania, my fiancée, here in Vienna. Sending messages with T-shirts is a habit that I stole from football. I’ve always loved this kind of things and I think that opera singers always “score a goal” with their singing, their high notes and of course during the most wanted time of the performance … “the applause”. I also have to say that in Vienna, when you give it all, the public feels it right away and there always is this incredible, warm standing ovation that repays you all the energy you’ve given. When they start screaming “bravooo” and they applaud we get the same emotions as the football fans during a game. That’s the time for us singers to share who we are (not just what we think we are) and what others want us to be when we’re impersonating a character. In that moment, I think, we are even more real, and that’s why I always say that the show still goes on even during the curtain calls. This enthusiasm led me to that big misunderstanding during my tournée in Japan with the ROH. After that incident was cleared by an official statement, I said that I will forgive but will not forget the press that, without double checking information, made the allegations that they did.

Unfortunately we live in a world that needs bad news in order to sell newspapers: we can see it even nowwith this horrible war that is going on. As for my t-shirt message, I wanted to show my true opinion, which fortunately was not distorted by journalists. I think it was the right time and the right opportunity to take a stand, even though I don’t like politics very much. War should be always avoided: millions of people are perishing and suffering tremendous consequences that will mark the rest of their lives, if they survive, for the interests of a few. I am against war, I am against someone who decides to send someone else to die without that person having decided on their own. During my Tosca’s performances, I understood even better by having both sides singing with me in the same rehearsal room. We are artists and I’ve always believed that music cannot be related to political decisions. Art and music are the glue that brings people of all kinds together, and there shouldn’t be any walls. Music, in fact, is the only common language that everybody can understand. That’s why on my T-shirt I decided to include not only the Ukraine flag, but also the Russian one: I believe that peace will come only by an act of love between both countries. reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

[classicalmusicdaily]

Eldred Gregory Peck, better known by his stage name Gregory Peck, was a tall, imposing American actor best known for portraying characters of honesty and integrity. He was born on April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, and passed away on June 12, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. Gregory Peck Peck, the son of a pharmacist, went to military school and San Diego State College before enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley, to study medicine. After graduating, he moved to New York to pursue his interest in acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse while also supporting himself as a concession barker at the 1939 World's Fair and an usher at Radio City Music Hall. Although critics praised Peck's performances, his Broadway debut in The Morning Star (1942), the first of three straight flops in which he appeared, was a success. Peck made his debut as a Russian guerilla warrior in Days of Glory after being invited to Hollywood (1944). He was unable to serve in World War II due to a prior spinal injury. He was able to become one of the most well-liked leading men of the 1940s thanks to this circumstance. His portrayal of an idealistic missionary priest in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) gave him his first Academy Award nomination. Three years later, in Gentleman's Agreement, he garnered a second Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a journalist who dresses as a Jew in order to expose anti-Semitism (1947). The Valley of Decision (1945), Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946), The Yearling (1946), and Yellow Sky (1946) are some of Peck's other noteworthy motion pictures from this decade (1948). Peck collaborated with the majority of the top Hollywood filmmakers of the day, including Lewis Milestone, Vincente Minnelli, William Wellman, King Vidor, and Hitchcock, but some of his best work was done for Henry King. Peck portrayed apparently powerful and authoritative people whose underlying problems and character weaknesses threatened to ruin them in King's Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Gunfighter (1950), David and Bathsheba (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Bravados (1958), and Beloved Infidel (1959). For his portrayal of the moral and sympathetic Alabama attorney Atticus Finch in the film adaption of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, he was finally recognised with an Academy Award (1962). He went on to play a distressed father in the well-known horror movie The Omen (1976), the titular American general in MacArthur (1977), and a rare villain in The Boys from Brazil as Nazi doctor Josef Mengele (1978). Peck worked into the early 1990s (when he declared that he was basically retired), but his last few movies are largely forgettable. Peck won the most praise for his portrayals of stoic men driven by a desire for decency and justice throughout his career; he was less successful in roles requiring a wide range of emotions, such as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (1956), where critics thought he failed to capture the compulsive qualities of one of the most complex characters in American literature. He nevertheless excelled in jobs that needed him to be the moral compass of a movie and was a charming actor. As one of the most helpful and non-egotistical actors in the movie business, Peck was also well-liked and respected. He worked extensively on civic, humanitarian, and political issues in addition to his work in movies. He cofounded the American Film Institute and served as chairman of its trustee board. He also served three years as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Peck missed one subject, therefore he did not graduate with his friends. His college classmates worried about him and questioned how he would manage without his diploma. He informed them, "I have everything I need from the university. Eldred was no longer a part of Peck's identity as he moved to New York City to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse under the tutelage of renowned acting coach Sanford Meisner.

He sometimes slept in Central Park because he was frequently broke. He was a barker at the 1939 World's Fair and a tour guide for NBC television at Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall. Prior to working for food in 1940 at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, where he appeared in five plays, including On Earth As It Is and Family Portrait, he dabbled in modelling. He made his acting debut on stage in 1941 in a Katharine Cornell production of George Bernard Shaw's play The Doctor's Dilemma as the secretary. Only one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the drama had its San Francisco premiere. In 1942, he made his Broadway debut as the main character in Emlyn Williams' The Morning Star. In The Willow and I alongside Edward Pawley that year, he gave his second Broadway performance. Since Peck was excused from military service due to a back ailment sustained while taking ballet and movement lessons from Martha Graham as part of his acting training, his acting skills were in high demand during World War II. Duel in the Sun, a western soap opera, featured Jennifer Jones as the seductive temptress who sparked Peck's love, rage, and desire. This was Peck's first "against type" role. David Thomson, a film historian, calls their connection "a continual knife battle of sensuality." The film, which also starred Joseph Cotten as Peck's upright half-brother and Jones' "steamy, sexpot" rival, received harsh criticism for its explicit content and was even outlawed in some towns. Duel in the Sun was the second-highest-grossing movie of both the 1940s and 1947 thanks to publicity surrounding its sexiness that included one of the largest cinema advertising efforts in history and a novel strategy of opening in several theatres simultaneously across the country. The first of Peck's two westerns in the 1950s was The Gunfighter (1950), which was directed by Henry King, with whom he had previously collaborated on Twelve O'Clock High. Peck portrays an aged "Top Gun of the West" who is tired of murdering and wants to retire with his beautiful but sensible wife and his kid, who is seven years old and whom he hasn't seen in a long time. Following extensive photographic research on the Wild West Era by Peck and King, which revealed that most cowboys had facial hair, "bowl" haircuts, and donned worn-out attire, Peck sported a moustache during filming.

[classicalmusicdaily]

Adrian gives his stage debut at the Romanian National Opera Cluj-Napoca in 2003 as Zuniga in Carmen, followed by appearances as Masetto in Don Giovanni, Colline in La Bohème and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. During the 2007-08 season he was a member of the Young Artists Project at the Bavarian State Opera Munich. He could be heard in the 2008-09 season in Der Vampyr at the Teatro Comunale Bologna, in The Queen of Spades at the Opéra de Monte Carlo and in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf. Starting with the 2009-10 season he became a member of the Deutsche Opera am Rhein Düsseldof. In 2011 he made his debut as Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival and appeared in the same role in 2012 at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, in the frame of a tour of the Teatro alla Scala di Milano and in 2013 at the Staatsoper Berlin under the baton of M° Daniel Barenboim. He is winner of various singing competitions: International Singing Competition „Hariclea Darclée“, International Singing Competition „Eugenia Moldoveanu“ and so many others. Dear Adrian, it’s a pleasure to talk to you! Only a few know that you are the first artist I have ever interviewed, back in 2016, so it is also, indirectly, thanks to you that OPERA Charm Magazine was eventually born, 4 years later. Thank you very much for believing in me at that time and for accepting our invitation! It’s a pleasure! Hello, Bianca, the pleasure is mine, as it was 6 years ago. Thank you for the invitation. First of all I have to admit I am happy as well as a bit proud to have contributed, even indirectly, to the birth of such an interesting project. Congratulations to you and the whole OPERA Charm team for your dedication! First of all, where do our questions find you? How did Anna Bolena go? This was a role debut for you, wasn’t it? Well, Anna Bolena had it’s last performance at the Dutch National Opera two days ago and I am already in Aix-en-Provence rehearsing for Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon as Pharaon for this year’s Summer Festival. Yes, Enrico VIII was a role debut as is Pharaon, by the way, so two in a row. This is the exciting dynamics of our profession, sometimes you sing for seasons in a row only the roles you already have in your repertoire and then comes a time, like this year for me, with three role debuts. The third one will be Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula, but I prefer not to say where, since the season is not announced yet from what I know. Coming back to Anna Bolena, I have to say it was a production that I enjoyed a lot, lovely house to work in, wonderful conductor and colleagues, great staging, beautiful costumes and set, so I was spoiled to have my debut under this circumstances and now that it is over, I am missing it already. reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

[classicalmusicdaily]

Adrian gives his stage debut at the Romanian National Opera Cluj-Napoca in 2003 as Zuniga in Carmen, followed by appearances as Masetto in Don Giovanni, Colline in La Bohème and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. During the 2007-08 season he was a member of the Young Artists Project at the Bavarian State Opera Munich. He could be heard in the 2008-09 season in Der Vampyr at the Teatro Comunale Bologna, in The Queen of Spades at the Opéra de Monte Carlo and in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf. Starting with the 2009-10 season he became a member of the Deutsche Opera am Rhein Düsseldof. In 2011 he made his debut as Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival and appeared in the same role in 2012 at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, in the frame of a tour of the Teatro alla Scala di Milano and in 2013 at the Staatsoper Berlin under the baton of M° Daniel Barenboim. He is winner of various singing competitions: International Singing Competition „Hariclea Darclée“, International Singing Competition „Eugenia Moldoveanu“ and so many others. Dear Adrian, it’s a pleasure to talk to you! Only a few know that you are the first artist I have ever interviewed, back in 2016, so it is also, indirectly, thanks to you that OPERA Charm Magazine was eventually born, 4 years later. Thank you very much for believing in me at that time and for accepting our invitation! It’s a pleasure! Hello, Bianca, the pleasure is mine, as it was 6 years ago. Thank you for the invitation. First of all I have to admit I am happy as well as a bit proud to have contributed, even indirectly, to the birth of such an interesting project. Congratulations to you and the whole OPERA Charm team for your dedication! First of all, where do our questions find you? How did Anna Bolena go? This was a role debut for you, wasn’t it? Well, Anna Bolena had it’s last performance at the Dutch National Opera two days ago and I am already in Aix-en-Provence rehearsing for Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon as Pharaon for this year’s Summer Festival. Yes, Enrico VIII was a role debut as is Pharaon, by the way, so two in a row. This is the exciting dynamics of our profession, sometimes you sing for seasons in a row only the roles you already have in your repertoire and then comes a time, like this year for me, with three role debuts. The third one will be Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula, but I prefer not to say where, since the season is not announced yet from what I know. Coming back to Anna Bolena, I have to say it was a production that I enjoyed a lot, lovely house to work in, wonderful conductor and colleagues, great staging, beautiful costumes and set, so I was spoiled to have my debut under this circumstances and now that it is over, I am missing it already. reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

[classicalmusicdaily]

Mychael Danna is an Emmy and Oscar-winning film composer known for his evocative blending of orchestral and electronic music with non-Western traditions. His numerous Genie Award-winning scores for filmmaker and longtime partner Atom Egoyan, as well as his Oscar-winning score for Ang Lee's 2012 film Life of Pi, are among his highly acclaimed compositions. Mycheal Danna At the University of Toronto, Danna developed a penchant for communicating difficult concepts in a way that is musically understandable. He was exposed to early music and global music there, which eventually shaped his style. In 1985, Danna won the school's first-ever "Glenn Gould Composition Award" and started composing music for student theatre companies, beginning his collaborative artistic relationship with Egoyan. Since 1987's Family Viewing, Danna has provided the music for all of Egoyan's movies (1987). The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television awarded Danna Genie Awards for his work on the Egoyan movies Ararat (2002), Felicia's Journey (1999), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and Exotica (1994), as well as for his Oscar-winning score for the movie Water (2005). After working with Ang Lee on the scores for The Ice Storm (1997) and Ride with the Devil, Danna won the 2013 Golden Globe and the 2013 Oscar for his work on Life of Pi (2012). (1999). A church choir sings in Sanskrit, Indian sitars play French melodies, European instruments play South Asian patterns, and a variety of other musical combinations soar alongside a full studio orchestra in Life of Pi (2012)'s complex soundscape, reflecting a very international story. Along with Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) and Tideland (2005), Bennett Miller's Moneyball (2011) and his Oscar-winning drama Capote (2005), Mira Nair's Vanity Fair (2004), Monsoon Wedding (2001), and Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), and Billy Ray's Breach (2007) and Shattered Glass are other notable collaborations (2003). The Oscar-winning Little Miss Sunshine (2006), for which Danna was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album, Marc Webb's celebrated romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer (2009), and James Mangold's Oscar-winning picture Girl, Interrupted round out Danna's list of accomplishments (1999). According to Danna, his strategy is to "make music an intrinsic element of the storytelling, not just duplicating what is happening onscreen, but adding unexpected dimension and insight that improve the experience of the director's vision. Since his 1978 debut on the Canadian science-fiction musical "Metal Messiah," composer Mychael Danna has been recognised for hundreds of cinema and television themes. He has collaborated with several of the best Hollywood filmmakers and provided the music for various films directed by Atom Egoyan and Ang Lee. For his score to Lee's 2012 film "The Life of Pi," he received the Academy Award and the Golden Globe, in addition to five Genie Awards in his native Canada. For five years, Danna worked as the resident composer at the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto (1987–1992). Music for dances has been used in performances such as Dead Souls (Carbone Quatorze Dance Company, 1996; directed by Gilles Maheu), and Gita Govinda (Royal Winnipeg Ballet, 2001; choreographer Nina Menon). Danna received an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto in June 2014 for his work in the music industry. Since his 1987 feature film debut as a composer for Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, Danna has been nominated for thirteen Genie Awards. He has received five awards for Original Score Achievement in Music. In the field of film music, Danna is regarded as one of the pioneers of fusing non-Western sound sources with symphonic and electronic minimalism. Because of his notoriety, he has been able to work with filmmakers like Denzel Washington, Atom Egoyan, Deepa Mehta, Terry Gilliam, Scott Hicks, Ang Lee, Gillies MacKinnon, James Mangold, and Mira Nair.

His score for Ang Lee's Life of Pi received nominations for two Academy Awards, including Best Original Song for Pi's Lullaby and Best Original Score. Other movies include Onward by Dan Scanlon, On the Basis of Sex by Mimi Leder, The Breadwinner by Nora Twomey, Capote and Moneyball by Bennett Miller, and (500) Days of Summer by Marc Webb. The Academy Award for Best Original Score went to Mychael Danna, the score composer for Life of Pi. The Canadian composer triumphed over John Williams, Thomas Newman, Dario Marianelli, and Alexandre Desplat in a battle of composers. Different Interviews Regarding his Work: The honour follows Danna's earlier Golden Globe triumph in the same category. Earlier in February, Thomas Newman's soundtrack for Skyfall won the BAFTA for best soundtrack, but he was unable to duplicate the feat at the Oscars. Tale won three Golden Globes—often regarded as a forerunner to the Academy Awards—in the following categories: Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Best Actor (Musical or Comedy, for Hugh Jackman), and Best Supporting Actress (musical or comedy, for Anne Hathaway) After collecting nominations for the music and the song "Pi's Melody" from the movie on Thursday, Mychael Danna's score for Ang Lee's Life of Pi won the award. Director Ang Lee and his parents were acknowledged by Canadian composer Danna for "the gift of music that you gave me." I felt very, very lucky to be a part of the entire Life of Pi experience, and I speak for the entire cast and crew, even before this, he continued. Ang Lee's film adaption of Yann Martel's book Life Of Pi is unquestionably one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year. Critics have already hailed it as a visual masterpiece for telling the strange tale of a youngster who is trapped in a lifeboat with just a tiger for company. However, Mychael Danna, the composer, wonders how on earth one goes about writing music for a movie like this. Danna talked to Classic FM's Lucy Coward about the process of writing the movie's score (for which he has since gotten a coveted Golden Globe nomination), how some of the music was inspired by his upbringing, and why staying in his compositional bubble for four months worked so well. In regards to the movie itself, Danna says: "Working on this project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and in a way, my entire career has brought me to this picture." It's difficult to disagree when praise is pouring in and expectations for the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards are high.

[classicalmusicdaily]

Composer and conductor, Elmer Bernstein, was American. He composed "some of the most famous and unforgettable themes in Hollywood history" during a career spanning more than five decades. His work includes over 150 actual movie scores as well as soundtracks for about 80 television projects. He got an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy for his contribution on Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). He was nominated for two Tony Awards, and five Grammy Awards, and got seven Golden Globe nominations. Elmer Bernstein Early Life: Born into a Jewish family in New York City, Bernstein was the son of Austria-Hungarian-born Edward Bernstein (1896–1966) and Selma (née Feinstein, 1901–1991; born in Ukraine). Bernstein worked professionally as a dancer, an actor (playing Caliban in The Tempest on Broadway), and a painter while still in his early years. He also won awards for each of these pursuits. He was a music enthusiast who went to the forward-thinking Walden School in Manhattan. Henriette Michelson, a Juilliard teacher who helped him for the entirety of his piano career, gave him a piano scholarship when he was twelve years old. She brought him to perform some of his improvisations for the composer Aaron Copland, who was supportive and chose Israel Citkowitz to be the little boy's tutor. Elmer composed music for the Armed Forces Radio while serving in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. The sections of Big Jake, Amazing Grace, Chuck, and Elmer Bernstein's spirited score for the 1958 motion picture adaptation of Erskine Caldwell's novel God's Little Acre are just a few examples of Elmer Bernstein's music that share some stylistic similarities with Aaron Copland's. He also composed music for Gregory Peck's movie Chuck. Career: The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Ten Commandments (1956), True Grit, The Man with the Golden Arm, To Kill a Mockingbird, Robot Monster, Ghostbusters, Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965), and The Fanfare used in the National Geographic television specials are just a few of the movies and TV shows for which Bernstein composed the themes or other music. Television viewers are also familiar with his The Magnificent Seven theme because it was featured in Marlboro cigarette commercials. Additionally, Bernstein composed the music for a large number of Ray and Charles Eames' short films. Along with Fred Astaire, Jackie Mills, and Tommy Wolf, Bernstein co-founded Äva Records in 1961, a United States record company with headquarters in Los Angeles. Hollywood Blacklist (1950s): Bernstein was targeted for criticism during the McCarthy era in the 1950s, along with numerous other Hollywood creators. When it was revealed that Bernstein had published some music reviews for a Communist journal, the House Un-American Activities Committee called him. He was forced to write music for films like Robot Monster and Cat-Women of the Moon instead of his earlier work on Sudden Fear and Saturday's Hero when he refused to name names and claimed that he had never been to a Communist Party conference. Elmer Bernstein - conductor Comedic Work (1980s): Bernstein's kid, John Landis, grew up close to him. Years down the line, despite the studio's protests, he asked Bernstein to write the score for National Lampoon's Animal House. He indicated to Bernstein that he believed that his music, which was performed straightforwardly as though the humorous members of the Delta fraternity were real heroes, would emphasize the humour more. A minor inversion of a secondary motif from Brahms' Academic Festival Overture serves as the basis for the movie's opening tune. For the next 15 years, Bernstein composed music for most of Landis's films, including An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, and the music video for the Michael Jackson song "Thriller." After accepting the job, Bernstein's career experienced a second wave. He also worked on notable comedies like Ghostbusters, Stripes, Airplane!, and The Blues Brothers.

Contributions in 1990s: Bernstein modified Bernard Herrmann's original score for the new version of Cape Fear after Martin Scorsese revealed he would remake the movie. The chance to collaborate with Scorsese and pay homage to Herrmann, was eagerly seized by Bernstein. Later, Scorsese and Bernstein collaborated on two additional movies: Bringing Out the Dead (1999) and The Age of Innocence (1993). The original, unfinished Herrmann score for Alfred Hitchcock's 1966 film Torn Curtain was originally conducted by Bernstein. Between 1939 and 1950, Bernstein performed as a concert pianist and also composed a large number of classical works, including three orchestral suites, two song cycles, various works for viola and piano, solo piano, and a string quartet. Bernstein studied composition with Aaron Copland, Roger Sessions, and Stefan Wolpe. Other Contributions: Bernstein met Christopher Parkening, a classical guitarist while serving as president of the Young Musicians Foundation. Bernstein then wrote a concerto for guitar and orchestra, which Parkening recorded in 1999 for the Angel label with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernstein. In the early 1970s, Bernstein also served as conductor of the San Fernando Valley Symphony in addition to being a lecturer at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Death: In the 1990s, the Bernsteins lived in the Santa Barbara, California, community of Hope Ranch. They later relocated to a house in Ojai, California, where Bernstein passed away on August 18, 2004, from cancer. Bernstein had three marriages. Rhoda Federgreen will go first. The couple was married in 1940s. Pearl Glusman was Bernstein's second wife, whom he married on December 21, 1946, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bernstein wed Eve Adamson in 1965 following their divorce. Before his passing, they remained married for 39 years. In the 1960s, Bernstein had shares in the Thoroughbred racing partnership Triad Stable, which took its name from a musical word. Robert Helfer, his assistant, and Morton Lipton, the trainer at the Triad Stable, were among his partners. At the time, Cathy Mouton, his spokeswoman, merely reported that Bernstein had passed away after a protracted illness. He was survived by his beloved wife Eve, their daughters Emilie and Elizabeth, their sons Peter and Gregory Bernstein from a previous marriage to Pearl Glusman, and five grandkids.

[classicalmusicdaily]

Florence Price, an accomplished pianist, composer, organist, and music educator, holds the distinction of being the first African-American woman to have a large national symphony orchestra perform one of her symphonic compositions. Her exceptional accomplishments under the oppressive "Jim Crow" era are a tribute to her tremendous talents and tenacity. Florence Price Florence Beatrice Price (April 9, 1887 – June 3, 1953) a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, is credited with being the first African-American woman to have her orchestral composition Symphony in E Minor performed by a significant American orchestra in 1933. Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed this work. Florence Price was born in Little Rock. Price's early career was as an educator based in the South, first at two schools in Little Rock after earning two artist diplomas at the New England Conservatory, where she began her studies at the age of 16. Later, she served as the head of the music department at Clark University in Atlanta until 1912 after completing her studies there. Florence relocated to Atlanta, Georgia in 1910 after returning to Arkansas for a brief period of time to teach. There, at the historically black college that is now Clark Atlanta University, she rose to become the department's head of music. She was married to lawyer Thomas J. Price in 1912. She resigned from her job as a teacher and relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he had a medical practice and two kids. In the already racialized community, she was unable to get employment. Florence Price, a member of the Chicago Black Renaissance, started a brand-new and fruitful chapter in her career as a composer there. Arthur Olaf Andersen, Carl Busch, Wesley La Violette, and Leo Sowerby were some of the top instructors in the city where she studied composition, orchestration, and organ. In 1928, she published four piano compositions. Price attended the Chicago Musical College, Chicago Teacher's College, University of Chicago, and American Conservatory of Music while living in the city, where he also studied music and other liberal arts and languages. In the Wanamaker music competition in 1932, her piano sonata in E minor took home first place, while her first symphony took home top honors. Frederick Stock, the conductor of the Chicago Symphony, became to like her music and scheduled the piece. After the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed Price's composition in 1933, she became the first African-American woman to have a major American orchestra perform her work. Despite the fact that she produced hundreds of works, her discography did not become part of the mainstream canon of the twentieth century. Many of her compositions, such as two violin concertos, may have been lost if they had not been discovered during the reconstruction of her abandoned home. In addition to composing, Price continued to perform as a pianist, organist, and teacher. He also published a number of effective educational pieces. She was hired by John Barbirolli in 1951 to write an overture, and she was scheduled to go to Manchester for the premiere but had to postpone it because of a hospital stay. She was scheduled to return to Europe in May 1953 to accept an award in Paris, but her health once more got in the way, and she passed away at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago the following month. In her honor, the Florence B. Price Elementary School (also known as Price Lit & Writing Elementary School) was established by the Chicago Public Schools in 1964 at 4351 South Drexel Boulevard in the North Kenwood section of Chicago, Illinois. The majority of Price's students were African Americans. The school was open from 1964 until the 2011 decision by the school district to phase it out owing to subpar academic performance, which finally resulted in its closure in 2013. Price possessed a piano that was located in the school. As of 2019, a local church is housed in the former school building.

The University of Arkansas Honors College hosted a performance in Price's honor in February 2019. The University of Maryland School of Music will host the International Florence Price Festival's debut event honoring Price's music and legacy in August 2020, it was announced in October 2019. Price was the BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week from January 4 through January 8, 2021. After her passing, a lot of her creative output was eclipsed by new musical genres that reflected the shifting tastes of contemporary culture. Although some of her compositions were destroyed, Price has continued to be recognized for her work as other female and African-American composers have. The Women's Philharmonic put together a CD of some of her work in 2001. 2011 saw the performances of Price's Concerto in One Movement and Symphony in E Minor by pianist Karen Walwyn and The New Black Repertory Ensemble. Florence Price's legacy and music disappeared into history, possibly due in part to the very small number of surviving pieces. However, approximately 200 of Price's manuscripts were discovered in 2009, neatly stashed away in boxes in an abandoned fixer-upper in a Chicago suburb. The finding has resulted in a joyous rebirth of interest in her works. We may all hope that this reconsideration of Florence Price's creativity and musicality will allow her to assume her proper position among the great American composers. After divorcing Thomas Price in January 1931, Florence Price married Pusey Dell Arnett (1875–1957), an insurance agent and former Chicago Unions baseball player who was around thirteen years her older. Pusey Dell Arnett was a widower. By April 1934, she and Arnett were no longer together; it seems they never got married. Price passed away from a stroke on June 3, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 66.

[classicalmusicdaily]

Elliot Goldenthal, an American composer of modern classical music as well as cinema and theatre compositions, was born on May 2, 1954. He was a pupil of John Corigliano and Aaron Copland and is best renowned for his particular style and his ability to combine numerous musical genres and methods in novel and creative ways. In 2002, he received the Academy Award for Best Original Score for his music for the film Frida, directed by his longtime wife, Julie Taymor. Elliot Goldenthal Elliot, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954, started taking music lessons at a young age and became very interested in music. "I performed in little piano concerts, learned the piano and trumpet, and participated in neighbourhood bands. But I also performed a lot of jazz and rock, and as a young person around that time, I was involved with what was happening in those musical genres." These early influences are still very much a part of Elliot's work, as can be heard on the soundtracks of films like Titus and Batman Forever, even if he is now mostly known for his leanings toward Western art music. Education and Career: Goldenthal was raised by musical influences from different genres and cultures in Brooklyn, New York City, where he was born. From Bucharest and Iaşi, Romania, Goldenthal's grandparents came to the United States in both sets. Goldenthal resided in a place with a diverse population, and his works reflect this. He attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, where he premiered his first ballet, Variations on Early Glimpses, at age of 14. He proceeded to showcase his wide-ranging musical tastes by playing with rock bands in the 1970s. He then pursued full-time music studies at the esteemed Manhattan School of Music, where he studied under the mentorship of John Corigliano, a musician he greatly respected, and received degrees in both compositions (1977 and 1979). For the theatre, dance, concert venue, and cinema, Goldenthal has written pieces. Films like Pet Sematary, Alien 3, Michael Collins, Batman Forever, Heat, and the Academy Award-winning score for Julie Taymor's Frida, in which Goldenthal played a brief role as a "Newsreel Reporter," are among those that feature the music he has created. He also played a "Circus Barker/Streetsinger" in a minor role in the theatre production of Juan Darièn, incidentally. In order to prepare the music for Frida, erudite musician Elliot Goldenthal devoted more than a year studying the music of Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Spain. Additionally, he added to this film his own upbringing in New York, where he was exposed to Latin music. He sought for the best acoustic guitarists to perform his songs, and several of them were recorded in his New York home room. He had a Mexican woman in her 90s who had performed the same song for Frida Kahlo decades earlier sing an important song in the film. She is still in perfect voice. Grendel, a three-act opera that Goldenthal co-wrote with Taymor and was based on the same-named John Gardner novel, was finished in 2006. It was narrated from the viewpoint of the monster Grendel and related the tale of Beowulf. With Eric Owens playing Grendel, it had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Opera in early June 2006, in front of John Williams and Emmy Rossum. The opera was later added to the company's official repertory, and in April 2007 Goldenthal was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Goldenthal collaborated once more with Michael Mann to soundtrack the 1930s gangster film Public Enemies, in 2008, and he did the same for The Tempest, another Julie Taymor Shakespeare adaption, in 2009. The distinctions between orchestral film soundtrack and classical stage music have gotten increasingly muddled, according to Goldenthal, which is how he believes they should be. He mentions Japanese musician Tru Takemitsu as an influence and someone he models his work after. Additionally, he has worked four times with Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan, including on In Dreams and Interview with the Vampire.

Working Style: Film music collectors have labelled Elliot Goldenthal the "thinking man's composer," and movie creators and fans of the genre typically choose his more intellectual works. He is renowned for his experiments, subtleties, and willingness to try out novel methods. He has composed music for movies in practically every category, including thriller, horror, and Shakespearean adaptations. Although he hasn't yet composed a comedy soundtrack, he has created comedic motifs for several movies, including Demolition Man and the Batman trilogy. He is well respected among fans and in the music and film industries for his diverse body of work. Although many people admire him for his musical prowess and particular style, some believe his work to be overly experimental or difficult to understand. He writes violent, atonal action music. He occasionally employs extremely quick French horn passages with bending tones and whining in the underscore. According to Goldenthal, "I either hear a melody or I hear sonority" rather than "hearing" atonal and tonal. On the website filmscoremonthly.com, a former classmate of Goldenthal remarked about a 1998 article on the Sphere score in which it was mentioned that Elliot was already experimenting with novel methods when he and Goldenthal were both students at the Manhattan School of Music in the 1970s. During a trumpet lesson, Elliott once instructed him to "buzz into the wrong end of the mouthpiece and sing into it as well." After listening to Goldenthal's film and concert music for almost ten years, he realized that he "was well ahead of the rest of us," despite initially thinking he was crazy.

[classicalmusicdaily]

A composer of film and television music, Debbie Wiseman is also known as an educator and on-air personality. Her music has been nominated for several awards, notching a few wins. She is also a regular guest conductor with orchestras throughout Britain. Debbie Wiseman Wiseman was born in London on May 10, 1963, and began composing music at the age of eight. She went on to attend the Trinity College of Music's Junior Department, and after finishing her time there, she studied piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Upon completion of her studies, she quickly landed a job for a Channel 4 documentary, which launched her career as a composer for the big and small screens. She is a regular contributor on BBC Radio 3 and 4. At the early age of seven, Debbie began learning to play the piano. The first time her mother saw Debbie playing the piano in the hotel parlor was during a family vacation, while the other kids were all splashing around in the lake. Due to the family's purchase of a piano, Debbie quickly advanced through the grades. She started working as a Saturday exhibitioner at Trinity College of Music, where talented kids up to age 16 spend their Saturday mornings learning theory, performing in chamber ensembles, and generally receiving a more thorough music education than is possible in the classroom. Debbie received an MBE for services to the music and film industries in the Queen's New Year's Honors list in 2004. She received honorary fellowships from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music, both of which she attended, as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Sussex. When Debbie led her movement of New Water Music aboard The Georgian barge in June 2012, she was one of the 11 composers selected to provide music for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant. She was given the task of writing the overture and finale for the Queen's 90th birthday celebration in 2016. As the station's resident composer since 2016, Debbie has created and produced a number of CDs for Classic FM. The Glorious Garden, a collaboration with gardener, author, and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh, was the follow-up album to The Musical Zodiac, which was published in 2016, and it spent three weeks atop the UK Classical Chart. Debbie's four entries—Wilde, Wolf Hall, The Mythos Suite, and The Glorious Garden—made her the most well-known British composer still active in 2021, according to Classic FM's Hall of Fame. With narration by Helen Mirren and Damian Lewis, Wiseman's album "The Music of Kings and Queens," released in June 2021 to commemorate the Queen's 95th birthday, immediately debuted at the top of the UK Classical charts. With seven entries—Wolf Hall, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Wilde, The Musical Zodiac, The Mythos Suite, The Music of Kings and Queens, and The Glorious Garden—Debbie was selected as the most well-liked living composer in Classic FM's Hall of Fame 2022. This included the song's highest-ever position in the chart at number four.

[classicalmusicdaily]

The young Austrian mezzo-soprano Patricia Nolz is the winner of the Casinos Austria Rising Star Award 2019 and was awarded at competitions such as the ÖJAB Music Competition Vienna and the Osaka Music Competition in Japan. In 2019 she was an Anny Felbermayer scholarship holder. She is right now a student at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Since 2019 she has been studying for a Master’s degree in Lied and Oratorio with Florian Boesch and Claudia Visca. On the opera stage Patricia has so far performed at the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre (Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Filipjewna in Eugene Onegin, title role in Oreste, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia), among others, at the Arnold Schönberg Center, at the Clairmont Concert Hall Tel Aviv, at Schloss Perchtoldsdorf (Dido in Dido and Aeneas), in Soligen and Remscheid (Bradamante in Alcina), as well as at the Herbsttage Blindenmarkt (Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus). In autumn 2020 she was highly acclaimed for her excellent debut as Cherubino in a new production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the Theater an der Wien, conducted by Stefan Gottfried and directed by Alfred Dorfer. Patricia Nolz was a member of the Opera Studio of the Vienna State Opera for 2 years. Dear Patricia, thank you for accepting our invitation! It’s always a pleasure to chat with young and talented opera singers. You just announce on your Instagram account that you will be an ensemble member of Wiener Staatsoper in the season 2022/2023. What does this step mean to your career? How do you think it will change from this point on? After 2 seasons in the Opera Studio (Young Artist Programme) of Wiener Staatsoper, it is a big honor to continue my journey in this house in the ensemble. I am looking forward to expanding my repertoire further, refining my craft and artistry and working together with all the lovely people in Wiener Staatsoper I got to know in the past years. Interestingly, my every-day-worklife will not change dramatically, since all of us studio-members were involved in nearly every production of the past 2 years, and therefore I have a good idea already about how the life in the ensemble looks like. But of course I am happy to announce that I will be singing several bigger roles next season, such as Rosina in Barbiere di Siviglia, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro. Speaking of Wiener Staatsoper, since the season 2020/2021 you are a member of the Opera Studio of the Wiener Staatsoper. What do these Opera Studios look for in a young singer at the audition? What can you tell us about your experience there? We recently had our Opernstudio-farewell-concert and I would like to quote the head of our Opernstudio, Michael Kraus: “When I first became head of the Opera Studio I started to look for singers who are the full package: talent, intelligence, diligence and a vision for themselves.” I respect Michael Kraus tremendously for the work he did and is still doing, particularly when it comes to the casting process. He takes the time to listen to hundreds of recordings by himself and invites the singers he wants to listen to live for a so-called “Arbeitsprobe”. The difference to a regular audition is that he is not only listening and requesting to listen to certain arias, but he actually works with the applicants to see how a person behaves in a collaborative situation, responds to criticism, musical suggestions and general feedback. My personal experience in the Opera Studio has been nothing, but wonderful. The whole program was really tailored to benefit all of us singers individually as much as possible. I got the opportunity to audition for several different conductors and casting directors, I participated in numerous masterclasses, and of course, probably most importantly, I got the opportunity to perform on the stage of Wiener Staatsoper dozens of times over the past 2 years, next to the most renowned singers in the world. Nothing can really inspire growth as much as these experiences.

reposted from https://opera-charm.com/