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Baritone Alexander York, from Wisconsin, begins his second season in the Académie of the Opéra national de Paris, where he will be seen in Don Carlo as a Flemish Deputy and in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges as L’Horloge comtoise and Le chat. Last season, he sang Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus. York recently made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut in Viktor Ullmann’s Der zerbrochene Krug in the role of the Bedienter. In 2017, he sang the role of James Ramsey in the world premiere of Zesses Seglias’ To the Lighthouse at the Bregenz Festival. York made his European debut as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore at Theater Augsburg in 2016 ; also in Augsburg, York played Angelotti in Tosca, the Captain in Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus, and Weickmann/Fuhrmann in Hans Thomalla’s Kaspar Hauser. Equally at home on the concert stage, York has performed with the Münchener Rundfunkorchester, Heidelberger Symphoniker, and the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich. York was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Research Grant to study Lied in Munich in 2016, and upon joining the Académie in Paris, he received the Richard F. Gold Career Grant.
Stephen Marsh is the 2018 recipient of the Paulette Bisley and Eleanor Blakemore Opera Scholarships with Melba Opera Trust. He made his professional debut in Victorian Opera’s Sleeping Beauty in 2017 and was also a developing artist, performing in Hansel and Gretel, Heroes and Villains (a gala concert) and Gordon Kerry’s The Snow Queen. Stephen was a member of the Opera Scholars Australia program for 6 years. Other companies he has performed with are Melbourne Opera (2012 – 2017 seasons), Melbourne Lyric Opera and Shoestring Opera Company. He has received multiple scholarships including the Barbara Pigdon Memorial, the Betty Amsden AO Scholarship ‘Opera Scholar of the Year’ for the Australian Music Events 2016/17 season and the John Duncan scholarship.
Originaire du sud de l’Italie et née en 1978, Maria Agresta sort diplômée du conservatoire Guiseppe Martucci de Salerne puis rejoint l’institut de musique Vecchi-Tonelli de Modène. Ce n’est qu’en 2006 que cette jeune soprano obtient ses premiers rôles, avec Rosina dans Le Barbier de Séville de Rossini, au Teatro Lirico Sperimentale de Spoleto. En 2007, elle y interprète Leonora dans Le Trouvère de Verdi. Elle obtient également le rôle de Desdémone dans Otello de Verdi, dans les théâtres italiens de Teramo, Papeterie, Ortona et Pescara.
En 2011, elle interprète la Duchesse Hélène des Vêpres Siciliennes de Verdi au Teatro Regio de Turin, dirigée par Gianandrea Noseda. Elle se voit rapidement offrir de grands rôles, comme le rôle-titre de Norma de Bellini à Tel-Aviv, puis Mimi dans La Bohême aux Arènes de Vérone, La Traviata à Cagliari ou encore Amelia dans Simon Boccanegra à l’Opéra de Rome. La Scala lui ouvre ses portes en 2012 avec le rôle de Donna Elvira dans Don Giovanni. Vérone l’accueille alors de nouveau pour sa prise du rôle de Liu dans Turandot. En 2013, elle interprète Elvira dans I Puritani de Bellini pour ses débuts à Paris-Bastilleen remplacement de Natalie Dessay, puis prend le rôle de Leonora dans Oberto, Comte de Saint-Boniface de Verdi à La Scala. Elle débute également à La Fenice de Venise en Amalia dans Les Brigands.
En 2014, elle fait ses débuts à Covent Garden dans le rôle de Lucrezia Contarini de I due Foscari sous la direction d’Antonio Pappano. En 2015, elle débute au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées et à Zürich dans Norma et à l’Opéra d’Etat de Vienne avec La Bohème, qui lui offre également ses débuts au Met en 2016. Cette année-là, elle débute à l’Opéra d’Etat de Bavière dans La Traviata (qu’elle reprend à l’Opéra allemand de Berlin l’année suivante). Toujours en 2016, elle prête sa voix à Marguerite dans Faust (Gounod) au Festival de Salzbourg, puis reprend le rôle-titre de Norma pour ses débuts au Teatro Real de Madrid. Elle retourne au Met en 2017 en Micaëla dans Carmen et débute à l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo avec Le Trouvère. En 2018, Zürich lui offre sa prise du rôle-titre de Luisa Miller, tandis qu’elle débute à l’Opéra d’Etat de Berlin avec celle d’Alice Ford dans Falstaff et à l’Opéra de Chicago avec Le Trouvère. En 2019, elle prend le rôle-titre d’Anna Bolena à Rome et celui d’Elisabeth de Valois dans Don Carlo à Madrid.
Bassoonist Pierre Gomes studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de musique in Lyon with Carlo Colombo before being accepted to the Munich Philharmonic Academy. He performed as member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra and of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra before joining the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra in 2011 and being invited to join the National Orchestra of Metz in 2012. He was also
invited by Claudio Abbado to play in the esteemed conductor’s Orchestra Mozart Bologna. Gomes has performed under the direction Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov and Kurt Masur, and has collaborated with François Leleux, Christian Zacharias, Martin Fröst and Renaud Capuçon. He is a professor at the Luxembourg Conservatory and has been invited to lead masterclasses in Colombia, Israel and Palestine.
Thomas Hampson has received numerous international awards for his artistry and cultural influence. His operatic repertoire includes more than 80 roles and his discography includes more than 170 albums, which have won several Grammy and Edison Awards and the Grand Prix du Disque. The American baritone is also Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In addition to several honorary doctorates, he is the Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera and Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République française, as well as the recipient of the Hugo Wolf Medal. In 2003 he founded the Hampsong Foundation, through which he uses the art of singing to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding.
She is the recipient of the First Prize, the Audience Prize, the Orchestra and Technicians’ Prize of the Concours International de Chant de Mâcon, the First Prize and Special Prize of the Jury of Léopold Bellan International Competition, of a Golden Medal from Manhattan International Music Competition, and is a winner of Armel Opera Competition, as well as a finalist of Concorso Liricio Internazionale Ottavio Ziino and Concours International George Enescu. This season, Jeanne will be making her debut at the Opéra National de Paris for a Beethoven concert (Amphithéâtre Bastille), at the Chorégies d’Orange for the 10th anniversary of Musiques en fête, at the Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence where she will give a recital with Renaud Capuçon and Tanguy de Williencourt, and at the Festival de Fénétrange under the baton of Mathieu Herzog with the Ensemble Appassionato. Upcoming roles include Sophie (Werther) at the Opéra de Nice, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at the Grand Théâtre, Scène Nationale de Mâcon under the baton of Eric Geneste directed by Sébastien Lemoine, Dorinda (The Tempest) and The Second Woman (Dido and Aeneas) conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón with the Cappella Mediterranea, staged by Pascal Neyron at the Rencontres Musicales d’Evian – La Grange au Lac. Her next recording projects are the song cycles of Karol Beffa’s next album under French label Klarthe as well as the role of Tessa (Die Afrikareise) with the Sofia Philharmonic and conductor Dario Salvi for Naxos Records.
Most recent operatic engagements include Der Hüter des Tempels (Die Frau ohne Schatten) under the baton of Valery Gergiev during the Verbier Festival, Le Feu/ Rossignol (cover) in Richard Jones’s production of L’Enfant et les sortilèges at the Opéra National de Paris and Amore (Orfeo ed Euridice) at Opera North in Sweden and Budapest Palace of Arts. As a chamber musician, Jeanne has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Danny Kaye Playhouse, Bargemusic, Dimenna Center, the Bohemian Hall in New-York, Grand Théâtre de Provence, Salle Cortot…
Jeanne Gérard has earned a Master’s of classical voice from Manhattan School of Music, where she studied under the tutelage of Patricia Misslin. She took part in the masterclasses of Thomas Hampson, Thomas Quasthoff, Barbara Frittoli, Mariella Devia, Graham Johnson, Dalton Baldwin, Martin Katz, Jake Heggie, Giulio Zappa… Jeanne has been a member of the Martina Arroyo Foundation, Songfest and the Atelier Lyrique of the Verbier Festival. Jeanne studied humanities at Henri IV (classe préparatoire littéraire) and holds a bachelor degree in philosophy from la Sorbonne. A versatile artist, she studied acting with Jean-Laurent Cochet, Scott Williams and Matt Newton, and played the roles of Mrs Wire in The Lady of Larkspur Lotion (T. Williams), Girl in Mr Paradise (T. Williams) and Yelena in Uncle Vanya (A. Chekhov) at the Producers’ Club in New-York. She trained in dance at the Centre de Danse du Marais and at the Broadway Dance Center. She has performed in famous jazz clubs in Paris and New York such as Le Petit Journal Montparnasse, The Manderley Bar, The Bitter End and The Lounge.
Jeanne’s performances have been broadcasted on Medici TV, Arte Concert, France Musique and France 3.
Equally at home as a soloist and as part of a chamber ensemble, violinist Mihaela Martin has collaborated with musical greats such as Kurt Masur, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Martha Argerich, Radu Lupu, Leon Fleisher, and Menahem Pressler. As a young musician, she won top prizes at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, the Montreal International Music Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. She credits Silvia Marcovici and the great pedagogue, Stefan Gheorghiu, with whom she studied for 10 years, as key influences in her development as an artist.
Martin left Romania in 1986 and has since resided in Germany, where she now teaches at the Barenboim-Said Akademie. She is a regular guest at many chamber music festivals, and pursues her intense love for chamber music as member of the Michelangelo String Quartet, which she helped found in 2003.
Aleksandar Madžar was born in Belgrade in 1968. He started playing the piano under the guidance of Gordana Malinović at the age of six, and later studied in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Moscow and Brussels, with Arbo Valdma, Elisso Virsaladze and Daniel Blumenthal.
He won prizes in Geneva, Leeds, the Busoni and Umberto Micheli competitions and gave his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Ivan Fischer in 1990. He has since then been performing regularly all over Europe, enjoying a rich and varied career in recital, concertos (with André Previn, Marcello Viotti, Paavo Järvi, Andris Nelsons) and chamber music, occasionally also touring North and South America, South Africa and the Far East and Australia.
Aleksandar Madžar is a frequent guest of the Wigmore Hall in London, the Theatre de la Ville in Paris, the Brussels Bozar, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, as well as the Conservatorio in Milan; the Delft, Lockenhaus, Peasmarsh and Juventus (Cambrai) summer festivals. His regular chamber music partners include, among others, the Takács Quartet, Anthony Marwood, Nicolas Altstaedt, Vilde Frang, and the soprano Juliane Banse.
Aleksandar Madžar teaches at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Brussels and at the Hochschule für Musik
Manfred Honeck has firmly established himself as one of the world’s leading conductors, whose unmistakable, distinctive and revelatory interpretations are receiving great international acclaim. For more than a decade, he has been Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In the 2020-21 season, he will celebrate the 125th anniversary season of the Orchestra, which is marked by special concerts, programming and partnerships to commemorate the occasion. Manfred Honeck and the orchestra are celebrated both in Pittsburgh and abroad. Guest appearances regularly include Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as the major European music cities and festivals such as the BBC Proms, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn and Grafenegg Festival. The close relationship with the Musikverein in Vienna continued with a residency in autumn 2019 as part of the orchestra’s most recent European Cities Tour, which took them to 10 cities in five countries.
His successful work in Pittsburgh is extensively documented by ten recordings on the Reference Recordings label. All SACDs featuring works by Strauss, Beethoven, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky and others have received a multitude of outstanding reviews and awards, including a number of Grammy nominations. The recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Barber’s Adagio won the Grammy for “Best Orchestral Performance” in 2018. The following year, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 garnered three Grammy nominations. A recording of Tchaikovsky No. 4 paired with the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon was released in May of 2020.
Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck completed his musical training at the University of Music in Vienna. His many years of experience as a member of the viola section in the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestra have had a lasting influence on his work as a conductor. His art of interpretation is based on his determination to venture deep beneath the surface of the music. He began his conducting career as assistant to Claudio Abbado and as director of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was awarded the European Conducting Prize in 1993. He has since served as one of three principal conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, as Music Director of the Norwegian National Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm.
From 2007 to 2011, Manfred Honeck was Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. There he conducted, among others, premieres of Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Mozart’s Idomeneo, Verdi’s Aida, Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and Wagner’s Lohengrin and Parsifal. Guest performances in opera led him to Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg and the Salzburg Festival. In Beethoven’s anniversary year of 2020, he conducted a new staging of Fidelio (1806 version) at the Theater an der Wien. Beyond the podium, Manfred Honeck has designed a series of symphonic suites, including Janáček’s Jenůfa, Strauss’s Elektra and Dvořák’s Rusalka. He recorded all of these arrangements with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and regularly performs them with orchestras around the globe.
As a guest conductor, Manfred Honeck has been at the podium of all leading international orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome and the Vienna Philharmonic. In the United States, he has conducted all major US orchestras, including New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. He has also been Artistic Director of the International Concerts Wolfegg in Germany for twenty-five years. Manfred Honeck has been honoured by several universities in the United States as an honorary doctorate and also was awarded the honorary title of Professor by the Austrian Federal President. The jury of the International Classical Music Awards selected him as “Artist of the Year” 2018.
Born in 1986 in Paris, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger studied organ, piano and composition before entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris at the age of thirteen, from which he graduated in 2005 with five first prizes. He then studied composition in Geneva with Michael Jarrell and Pascal Dusapin. Since then, he has a double activity of composer and pianist recognized for the extreme variety of his repertoire.
Jean-Frédéric Neuburger has received numerous commissions, notably from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Evian Festival, Radio-France, the International Long-Thibaud Competition and the Folles Journées de Nantes. His works have been performed by the Orchestre de Paris and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi and the Chœur et l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Pascal Rophé. His chamber music works have been performed by Henri Demarquette, François Salque, Nicolas Dautricourt, Lise Berthaud, Raphaël Sévère, Bertrand Chamayou in venues such as the Lincoln Center, Lucerne Festival, Musikverein Vienna.
He performs as a soloist with the most prestigious orchestras (New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse…) and collaborates with renowned conductors such as François-Xavier Roth, Paavo Jarvi, David Zinman, Jonathan Nott, Michael Tilson Thomas. He has also worked with Pierre Boulez notably to study his Second Piano Sonata. In January 2014, the Louvre Auditorium offered him carte blanche for six concerts.
He is invited by the most important international festivals (Verbier, Lucerne, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, La Roque d’Anthéron, Saratoga, La Jolla Music Society) and as a chamber musician he performs with the most brilliant musicians of his generation, such as the Quatuor Modigliani, Bertrand Chamayou, Renaud Capuçon, Raphaël Sévère.
Recently, he has been heard in Brazil and at the Festival Musica de Strasbourg with Jean-François Heisser in Stockhausen’s Mantra, in Boston with Christoph von Dohnányi for Schumann’s Piano Concerto, as well as at the Lincoln Center in New York for the US premiere of his piece Plein Ciel. In February 2018 he gave the critically acclaimed premiere of his own piano concerto with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Jonathan Stockhammer. He has also performed at the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Lucerne Festival with a program of works by Rihm and Schumann, as well as the premiere of Vito Zuraj’s Alavo with the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Academy.
He devotes an important part of his interpretative activity to the diffusion of today’s music: in 2012 he premieres Philippe Manoury’s Piano Concerto with the Paris Orchestra conducted by Ingo Metzmacher as well as works by Bruno Mantovani, Phillip Maintz, Yves Chauris. His recordings have been acclaimed by the international press. The “Live at Suntory Hall” released in 2008 received a “Choc” from Le Monde de la Musique and his recording of Ferdinand Herold’s Piano Concertos received a “Choc” from Classica.
Jean-Frédéric Neuburger received the Lili and Nadia Boulanger Prize from the Academy of Fine Arts and the Hervé Dugardin Prize from the Sacem 2015.