MASTERCLASSES
2017

IRÈNE KUDELA

Sunday 30th September

Irene Kudela was born in Yugoslavia from a czech-russian-polish-french family. She started her musical studies in Prag, Czekoslovakia, and Mastered in Paris Conservatory, in Piano, Chamber music and Accompaniment. She is a Laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. She is fluent in seven languages, which enables her to collaborate to the preparation of numerous operas, and to assist conductors like Pierre Boulez, Guenadi Rozhdestvensky, Jiri Belohlavek, Kent Nagano, Myung Whung Chung and Charles Mackerras. 
She has been invited in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Rome, München, Helsinki, Oslo, Göteborg, Budapest and Paris. From 1985 to 1988, she assisted Mstislav Rostropovitch in all the operas he conducted, in Europe and America. As a vocal coach, she has coached numerous of famous singers, like Rolando Villazon, Natalie Dessay, Roberto Alagna, Renee Fleming, Barbara Hendricks, Ruggero Raimondi and Leonie Rysanek. She is also Chorus Master, invited at the Opera Bastille, Theatre des Champs Elysees, RadioFrance. She is coaching young singers and pianists at the Academie de l'Opera de Paris, the London National Opera Studio and the Foundation Royaumont. Invited in famous Festivals like Aix en Provence, Savonlinna, Salzburg, Orange, Glyndebourne, she has also performed as a pianist in Yugoslavia, Japan, Finland, England and France. She has recorded a Darius Milhaud recital with the french baryton Jean-François Gardeil, and has been vocal adviser for opera recordings by EMI, ERATO, TELDEC, DEUTSCHE GRAMOPHON and HUNGAROTON.

DAVID BIZIC

Sunday 16th September

David Bizic was born in Belgrade, Serbia and studied at the International Vocal Arts Institute and the New Israeli Opera Young Artist Studio and won second prize at the prestigious 2007 Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition.

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A regular at the Met, Covent Garden, Paris and other main Opera houses around the world he he also in demand on the concert platform.

ANN HALLENBERG

Sunday 18th June

The Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg regularly appears in opera houses and festivals such as Teatro alla Scala Milan, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Teatro Real Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra National Paris, Opéra de Lyon, Théâtre de La Monnaie Brussels, Netherlands Opera Amsterdam, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Staatsoper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Royal Swedish Opera, Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival and Edinburgh Festival.
Her operatic repertoire includes a large number of roles by Rossini, Mozart, Gluck, Massenet, Handel, Vivaldi and Monteverdi.
Equally at home on the concert platform she frequently appears in concert halls and festivals throughout Europe and North America. She has built an unusually vast concert repertoire that spans music from the early 17th Century works of Monteverdi and Cavalli, via Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Mahler and Chausson up to contemporary works of Franz Waxman and Daniel Börtz.
Ann Hallenberg regularly works with conductors such as Fabio Biondi, William Christie, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Haïm, Philippe Herreweghe, Marc Minkowski, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Antonio Pappano, Christophe Rousset and Alberto Zedda.
She has recorded more than 40 CD and DVD with music by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn, Gluck, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Bruckner, just to mention a few. At the International Opera Awards in London in May 2016 her solo-CD "Agrippina" won the award for "Best Operatic Recital". This was her second win in the category, having also won in 2014.

KATARINA KARNÉUS

Sunday 7th May

Katarina Karnéus trained at the Trinity College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. Katarina performs on the world’s leading opera and concert stages and has been engaged by the Göteborg Opera since 2012. In 2018, she was appointed Court Singer to the Swedish Royal Court. Performances at the Göteborg Opera include, among others, Fricka in the Rheingold, BrangaineinTristan and Isolde, Orpheus in Orpheus och Eurydice, the Woman in Schönberg’s Erwartung and Madame Sebastian inNotorious. Further roles include Queen Gertrude in Hamlet and Clytemnestra in Electra, Octavian in the Knight of the Rose (Der Rosenkavalier) and Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina. In 2018, her interpretation of the lead role in Bellini’s Norma, won her Svenska Dagbladet’s Opera Prize. In 1995, Katarina Karnéus won the world famous singing competition - Cardiff Singer of the World. Katarina made her debut in 1999 on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera as Varvara in Katja Kabanova. This was followed by Olga in Eugene Onegin, Siebel in Faust and Rosina in the Barber of Seville. Other roles include Herodias in Salome at Opera North, Claire in The visit of the Old Lady at Theater an der Wien, Annio in the Midlness of Titus at the Royal Opera House and Bayerische Staatsoper, Countess Geschwitz in Lulu at the Bayerische Staatsopera, the title role in Carmen at the Opéra Comique and in Alceste at La Monnaie, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Orpheus in Orpheus and Eurydice at the Deutschen Oper, Berlin. Katarina Karnéus has performed as a soloist in front of orchestras such as Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the BBC's Scottish Symphony Orchestra. As a singer of classical romance, Katarina has performed, at the Wigmore Hall in London, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York and the Concertgebouw. Royal events include performances at the Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street in London as well as at Her Majesty Queen Silvia's Childhood concerts and the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in 2010. 
Recordings include, among others, Songs by Sibelius and Grieg, R. Strauss and Mahler, Orchestral Songs by Szymanowski with Simon Rattle and Orchestral Songs by Mahler with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki. DVD recordings include Brangaine in Tristan and Isolde with Nina Stemme in the role of Isolde. 
In 2010, Katarina Karnéus won two Grammy Awards for Mahler's Eighth Symphony accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, she was awarded the Litteris et Artibus medal by His Majesty the King of Sweden.