Pianists
Sergei Leiferkus
Sergei Leiferkus is considered one of the world’s most renowned and accomplished performing artists. With an international career stretching over 40 years, he made a name for himself in complex opera roles, such as Scarpia (Tosca), Iago (Otello), Rangoni (Boris Godunov), Telramund (Lohengrin) or Alberich (Ring des Nibelungen), to name but a few. He is a frequent guest at the world’s leading opera houses, such as London’s Royal Opera House, Opéra de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Semperoper (Dresden), New York Met, San Francisco, Chicago (Lyric Opera) and Teatro Colón; and at festivals like Salzburg, Glyndebourne or Bregenz.
His repertoire goes on to include famous baritone roles, like Don Giovanni, Nabucco, Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra, Amonasro, Klingsor, Eugene Onegin, Prince Igor or the High Priest of Dagon, and he continues to add new roles, like Schigolch (Lulu) or the Forester (Cunning Little Vixen).
On the concert repertoire, he has appeared with the world’s most famous orchestras, under eminent conductors like Abbado, Solti, Maazel, Levine, Gergiev, Haitink, Muti, Harnoncourt, Tilson Thomas or Ashkenazy. His discography comprises almost 40 recordings, including in opera the roles he is most noted for, and with a particular attention to Russian concert repertoire and the Russian song tradition, from Glinka to Shostakovich. A native of St. Petersburg, Mr. Leiferkus started his career there (Maly Theatre, then the Mariinsky), before his international breakthorugh in Berlin, in 1980.
Ivan van Kalmthout
Artistic Director
For the last 6 years Mr van Kalmthout has led the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) which has existed since 1954 and whose prizewinners include artists of the stature of Thomas Hampson, Dame Sarah Connolly, Pretty Yende, Josh Lovell and Lenneke Ruiten. He was twice a member himself of the jury of that illustrious competition and has also served as a jury member of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2002, the 2nd China International Singing Competition in the same year and in the Bulbul Opera competition in Baku (Azerbeijan) in 2010 and in the Marie Kraja International Singing Competition in Tirana (Albania) 2022. He has a broad range of experience in leading opera houses all over Europe. He was interim artistic director of the Liceu opera house in Barcelona (and before that for 10 years the adjunct artistic director). He worked as Operndirektor in the Staatsoper Unter den Linden im Schillertheater in Berlin. In both latter houses he was closely involved with the two opera studios for younger artists that formed part of the ensemble. He started his career with the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerpen / Ghent where his last position was casting officer.
Anna Samuil
Soprano
Staatsoper Berlin
Soprano Anna Samuil is among the most sought-after singers of her generation and has been steadily engaged as a soloist at the Staatsoper Berlin since 2004.
After her international debut as Violetta (Traviata) at Berlin State Opera in 2003, her career quickly brought her to important stages, like La Scala Milan, New York Met, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper, Hamburg SO, Valencia, Lyon and Tokyo; and to renowned festivals, like Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Verbier, Arena di Verona and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Recordings documenting Anna Samuil’s artistic activities include ‘Eugene Onegin’ from the Salzburg Festival, ‘Don Giovanni’ from Glyndebourne, ‘Das Rheingold’ and ‘Götterdämmerung’ from La Scala, ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ from Berlin SO, Britten’s ‘War Requiem’, Beethoven’s ‘Ninth Symphony’ and her latest CD release, “Il mondo felice”, an homage to Maria Malibran with her violinist sister Tatiana.
Anna has collaborated with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Antonio Pappano, Plácido Domingo, Myung-whun Chung and Gustavo Dudamel, to name just a few. Directors who have guided her career include Franco Zeffirelli, Peter Stein, Jonathan Miller, Achim Freyer, Claus Guth, and Guy Cassiers. Since 2011 she is a Voice Professor at the Hanns Eisler Music University in Berlin.
Juliane Banse
Soprano
Few artists of her generation are as successful as Juliane Banse in so many areas of diverse repertoire. Her operatic repertoire ranges from Feldmarschallin, Figaro-Gräfin, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia to Genoveva, Leonore, Tatjana, Arabella, Marschallin, Grete (Schreker’s Der ferne Klang) and Schneewittchen (in Heinz Holliger’s Schneewittchen).
Born in southern Germany and raised in Zurich, the soprano first took lessons with Paul Steiner, later with Ruth Rohner at the Zurich Opera House, and then completed her studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich.
Since the winter semester 2020/2021, she has been teaching as a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and in the winter semester 2023 she has taken over the direction of the singing class at the Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid. She also gives master classes in Austria and abroad and participates as a jury member in international competitions.
The artist worked with numerous renowned conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Claudio Abbado and Manfred Honeck.
Lieder recitals have always been her passion and have taken her to the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus Vienna, Kölner Philharmonie, Berlin’s Boulez Hall and Madrid, among others.
