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INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL  FOR SINGERS 2008   

Biographies

Ann Murray was born in Dublin and studied with Frederick Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music. She has established close links with both the English National Opera, for whom she has sung the title roles in Handel's "Xerxes" and "Ariodante" and Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda”, and with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where her roles have included Cherubino, Dorabella, Donna Elvira, Rosina, Octavian, and new productions of "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges", "Ariadne auf Naxos", "Idomeneo", "Mitridate, Re di Ponto", "Cosi fan Tutte", "Mosé in Egitto", "Alcina" and "Giulio Cesare".  

Much sought after as a concert singer, she has sung with the Orchestre de Paris under Kubelik, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Sawallisch, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Muti, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Solti, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Haitink and in the Musikverein, Vienna under Sawallisch and Harnoncourt.  She sings in Great Britain with the leading orchestras, at the BBC Promenade Concerts (where she has sung at both the First and Last Nights of the Proms) and at the major festivals.  

Ann Murray's recital appearances have taken her to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva, Dresden, Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, London, Dublin, the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich and Salzburg Festivals and both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. Her discography reflects not only her broad concert and recital repertoire but also many of her great operatic roles, including Purcell's Dido under Harnoncourt, Dorabella under Levine, Cherubino under Muti, Hansel under Colin Davis, Sextus under Harnoncourt and Donna Elvira under Solti.  

Her operatic engagements have taken her to Hamburg, Dresden, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Zurich, Amsterdam, the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. At La Scala , Milan her roles have included Donna Elvira, Sextus, Dorabella and Cherubino under Muti.  For the Bavarian State Opera, Munich she has sung Cherubino, Dorabella, Sextus, Elvira, the Composer, Octavian, Xerxes, Ariodante, Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo; at the Vienna State Opera Idamantes, Cherubino, Charlotte, Rosina, Octavian and the Composer; and at the Salzburg Festival Cecilio and Sextus under Cambreling, La Cenerentola under Chailly, Nicklausse and Cherubino under Levine, Dorabella and Donna Elvira under Muti and Octavian under Maazel.  

Her engagements include her return to the English National Opera (new productions of “The Gondoliers” and “The Turn of the Screw”), the Royal Opera Covent Garden (“Le nozze di Figaro” and “Hansel und Gretel”) and to the Metropolitan Opera, New York (“Le nozze di Figaro”).  

In 1997 Ann Murray was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the National University of Ireland, in 1998 she was made a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera and in 1999 an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2002 Golden Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Honours she was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  In 2004 she was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit.

Robert WHITE, tenor, was born into a New York family that enjoys a strong tradition of song. He studied at the Juilliard School, earning a Master's Degree in voice. European studies included work with the legendary Nadia Boulanger at Fountainebleau.

Versatility has been the tenor's trademark throughout his career. Just after college he toured Europe and America as soloist in Medieval and Renaissance music with Noah Greenberg's New York Pro Musica, while also giving premieres of twentieth-century works by Menotti, Schuller, Babbitt, Corigliano and Hindemith (under this latter's direction).

Today his singing is applauded by audiences worldwide. He has sung for five American Presidents, Britain's Queen Mother and Prince Charles, Monaco's Royal Family, and Pope John Paul II. Symphonic and chamber music appearances include the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the New York Pops, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. Mr White has sung at major music festivals, including New York's Mostly Mozart, as well as the Aspen, Edinburgh, Prague, Hong Kong and Spoleto Festivals. His work in opera ranges from Baroque pieces to Mozart's Don Giovanni, Smetana's The Two Widows, Bizet's Carmen, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, and modern operas such as Hindemith's The Long Christmas Dinner, and Menotti's Labyrinth.

In the 1980s Mr. White attracted a large concert public in Britain and Ireland. Following a month-long English tour with flautist James Galway he was given the rare opportunity to host his own weekly radio programme with orchestra on the BBC, singing music ranging from Handel and Beethoven to Kern and Berlin.

Robert White has recorded more than a dozen solo albums. In addition to his busy performing schedule, he is a member of the Voice Faculty of the Juilliard School.

Graham JOHNSON O. B. E. After arriving in Britain from his native Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe),Graham Johnson studied at London's Royal Academy of Music and subsequently with the late Geoffrey Parsons. In 1972 he was official accompanist at Peter Pears's first Master Classes at The Maltings, Snape, and thereafter worked regularly with the great tenor. In 1975 he was invited by Walter Legge to accompany Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. In 1976 he formed The Songmakers' Almanac to further the cause of neglected areas of piano-accompanied vocal music and to place the staple repertoire of song in new and challenging contexts. This endeavour was much supported by the late Gerald Moore, whose guiding influence in Johnson's career was of crucial importance.

Apart from devising and accompanying over one hundred and fifty Songmakers' recitals, Graham Johnson has presented a number of summer recital cycles for London's South Bank and Wigmore Hall, as well as a seven-part cycle of Goethe settings for the Alte Oper, Frankfurt. He has written and presented programmes for both BBC Radio and Television on the songs of Schubert, Poulenc, Liszt and Shostakovich. He is Professor of Accompaniment at London's Guildhall School of Music, and a Fellow of that School as well as of the Royal Academy of Music. He has given Master Classes as far afield as Finland, New Zealand, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.

Graham has accompanied such distinguished singers as Elly Ameling, Victoria de los Angeles, Arleen Auger, Brigitte Fassbaender, Lucia Popp, Tom Krause, Jessye Norman, Peter Schreier, Marjana Lipovsek, Felicity Palmer, Ann Murray, Christine Schäfer, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Matthias Goerne and Dame Margaret Price. He has accompanied Dame Felicity Lott since their student days at the Royal Academy of Music where they worked together with the late Flora Nielsen.

Graham's ten year project to record the entire Schubert Lieder for Hyperion continues to attract critical acclaim, including the 'Gramophone' Solo Vocal Award in both 1989 (for his disc with Dame Janet Baker) and 1996 (for 'Die schöne Müllerin' with Ian Bostridge); his other collaborators in the series include Thomas Allen, Brigitte Fassbaender, Thomas Hampson, Christoph Prégardien, Dame Margaret Price, Dame Felicity Lott, Ann Murray, Edith Mathis, Philip Langridge, Arleen Auger, Lucia Popp, Marjana Lipovsek, Christine Schäfer, Matthias Goerne and Peter Schreier. He has now embarked on a new project for Hyperion, to record the entire Lieder of Schumann. The first disc in this series, with Christine Schäfer, won the 1997 'Gramophone' Solo Vocal Award.

Graham Johnson was awarded an OBE in the 1994 Queen's Birthday Honours list. Graham’s hobbies include collecting books.

Ronny LAUWERS is an animator, a stage producer, a singing coach and a teacher of theatre and animation film techniques. He possesses a unique combination of talents, which have accumulated through his wide-ranging training and professional experience, in several key areas associated with stage and screen productions. The level of knowledge and depth of understanding of the theatre, drama and acting, which he has acquired throughout his career, makes him one of Belgium’s most versatile artists and specialists in this field.  

He combines his teaching career with a busy schedule as a freelance producer of opera with different companies in Belgium. As professor of Opera and Character-studies at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music, where he is head of the ‘Lyrisch Atelier’, he works extensively with young singers on drama and interpretation. Through his background and practical experience of working with professional singers, he is better able to guide and advise the aspiring, and often ambitious, young singers on the road to a career in the performing arts.  His professional experience as an opera producer includes:

   De Munt - Brussels :

- ‘Noye’s fludde’ by Benjamin Britten (producer)

- ‘Don Giovanni’ by Mozart, ‘Le coffret à bijoux’, ‘The fantastics’ by Jones-Schmidt, ‘La bohème’ by Puccini (assistant producer to Ida Huisman)

- ‘Werther’ by Massenet, ‘Cosi fan tutte’ by Mozart (assistant producer to Jo Dua)

 -‘La Muette’ (assistant producer to Maurice Béjart)

·       Opera Voor Vlaanderen - Antwerp

‘The Rake’s Progress’ by Stravinsky, ‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia’ by Rossini, ‘Samson et Dalila’ by Saint-Saëns, ‘Norma’ by Bellini, ‘Lohengrin’ by Wagner, ‘Gansendonck’ by W. Kersters (producer)

·       Vlaamse Kameropera - Antwerp

‘La finta Giardiniera’ by Mozart, ‘Captain Lovelock’ by Duke, ‘Prima la musica, poi le parole’ by Salieri, ‘Mozart en Salieri’ by Rimsky - Korsakof and ‘La cambiale di matrimonio’ by Rossini (producer)

·       BRTN - Brussels

- ‘Marialeven’ by Karel Candael (producer)

- ‘Prima sera’ from ‘La vie Parisienne’ by Offenbach (coach)

·       ECOV - Gent

- ‘Il Signor Bruschino’ by Rossini, ‘Don Pasquale’ by Donizetti, ‘Gianni Schicchi’ by Puccini, ‘Lettera d’amore’ an Italian Opera program including works by Cilea, Puccini, Verdi, Rossini and Menotti (producer)

- master-classes for Belgian singers

·       the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music

     ‘Dido and Aeneas’ by Purcell, ‘Riders to the sea’ by Vaughan Williams, ‘The rape of Lucretia’ by Britten, ‘Songfest’ by Bernstein, ‘Requiem a tre voci, viola e organo’ by Puccini, ‘Come and Go’ by Holliger, ‘Hercules, the adventure of a professor’ by Lucien Posman and ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ by Schoenberg (producer)

·         Opera Transparant – Antwerp/Manchester 1999

     ‘The Llighthouse’ – Peter Maxwell-Davis (producer)

       Opera studio of la Monnaie/De Munt Brussels 2000 - 'Riders to the sea' - Ralph Vaughan Williams

His highly acclaimed production of Vaughan Williams' 'Riders to the sea' was performed at the Belgian National Opera, La Monnaie/De Munt in 2001. 

Since 2004 Ronny Lauwers is the Director of the Flanders Opera Studio.

Loh SIEW-TUAN now resident in London, was born in Fujian province, China but was brought up in Penang, Malaysia. She had her initial training at Trinity College of Music, London, where she was awarded F.T.C.L. in Singing Performance and A.T.C.L. in Piano Teaching.

Throughout her international singing career, she has acquired a great deal of knowledge and experience as a performer and her wide-ranging Opera and Lieder repertoire encompasses from early Baroque to Schonberg and Zemlinsky.  Her singing engagements have taken her to more than 20 countries world-wide, including Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal the Czech Republic, North and South America, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand.

In 1992 she was Chairman of the Jury for both the Australian Singing Competition and for the Mobil Song Quest in New Zealand, an honour which she shares with Vera Rozsa, Sarah Walker, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Tom Krause.

As a long time student and collaborator of the world-renowned Vocal Consultant, Madame Vera Rozsa, Miss Loh is widely recognised internationally as a Vocal Arts teacher of considerable reputation.

Her teaching engagements have included positions at; the European Centre for Opera and Vocal Art (ECOV) in Belgium; the Maîtrise du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versaille; Notre Dame de Paris, France. She was responsible for the development of many talented Venezuelan recitalists and opera singers at the time when she was the Professor of Vocal Studies at the Opera de Caracas, Venezuela.

From 1996-1999, she was Visiting Professor of Opera at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, during which time she conceived the idea for and set-up the organisation OPERAPLUS , an independent training centre, dedicated to assisting young singers in the advancement of their vocal, musical and dramatic capabilities.

As a Vocal Teacher, Miss Loh is in regular demand internationally and has given Master Classes at; the New South Wales Conservatory in Sydney, Australia; the Victoria University in Wellington, as well as in Christchurch and Auckland, New Zealand; and at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin, Ireland. For many years she has also had a close association with the International Vocal Summer School in Salt Lake City, USA, and has given Master Classes at the Utah Opera.

Above all, Loh Siew-Tuan is known and respected for her sympathetic affinity and close involvement with young singers, throughout Europe and elsewhere, who aspire to a career in the performing arena. Since 1997, as a founding member and Artistic Director of OPERAPLUS , she has launched; a highly successful series of Celebrity Master Classes with internationally renowned artists, in co-operation with the Belgian National Opera, La Monnaie, Brussels; a yearly International Summer School for Young Singers at Kortenberg, Belgium; and has conducted 17 two-day workshops for young singers on vocal technique, musicianship, rôle-interpretation, character-studies and stage movement. Miss Loh was also invited by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, in 1999 and 2000, to direct two summer school programmes for young singers in Belfast.

In 2004, Ms Loh was engaged as a vocal consultant at the Flanders Opera Studio.

Nigel FOSTER F.R.A.M. was born in London and studied piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Graham Johnson, and also privately with Roger Vignoles. At both the Academy and the Guildhall he won numerous prizes and awards. In 2000 Nigel was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Nigel regularly partners many of Britain’s leading young singers, and has also played with established artists such as Ian Partridge, Neil Jenkins, Stephen Varcoe and Jane Manning. He has performed in major London venues including the Wigmore Hall, St John Smith Square and the South Bank and Barbican Arts Centres, as well as St David’s Hall Cardiff and Fairfield Halls Croydon. Nigel has played for Graham Johnson’s Songmakers Almanac, Live Music Now – the scheme founded by Yehudi Menuhin, the Park Lane Group, and several major opera companies including Glyndebourne Festival. He was a rehearsal pianist for the late Sir Georg Solti, playing for singers including Renee Fleming, Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorgiu. Nigel has played for Master Classes for Sarah Walker, Sherrill Milnes, Nelly Miricioiu, Thomas Hampson, Tom Krause, Stuart Burrows and Ileana Cotrubas. Nigel works closely with Sarah Walker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Nigel’s many CD recordings include several discs with baritone Jeremy Huw Williams for the Sain label (including anthologies of songs of Mansel Thomas and Alun Hoddinott), “Songs from Latin America” with soprano Marina Tafur for the Lontano label, English songs with Stephen Varcoe and soprano Georgina Colwell, and several CDs with the Dolmetsch Ensemble. He features on the soundtrack of the French film, “L’Homme est une Femme comme les Autres”.

Nigel has performed in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, The Netherlands, the USA, Canada, South America, Japan and Malaysia. His association with OPERAPLUS leads to regular playing and coaching in Belgium, where he enjoys indulging in the local chocolates. Plans for 2004 include a concert tour of Australia, and return visits to perform in Belgium, Germany, Japan and Malaysia. Nigel has appeared on English and Welsh television and played for song recitals on Classic FM and French radio.

Hein BOTERBERG studied piano with Johan Duijck at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in his native town Ghent, in Belgium. He graduated with high distinction and was given five first prizes in academic studies. By that time, he played for singers in masterclasses and competitions such as the Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium and the Marmande Singing Contest in France.

He received bursaries and postgraduate diplomas in vocal accompaniment at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow and the Guildhall School of Music in London. In Glasgow he was awarded the James Geddes Prize for repetiteurs. Among his teachers were Graham Johnson, Eugene Asti and Timothy Dean. He participated in masterclasses given by Martin Katz, Helmut Deutsch, Roger Vignoles and Rudolf Jansen.  He has also been the holder of the Geoffrey Parsons Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music in London.

Hein has been accompanist for several singing masterclasses and courses given by Robin Bowman, Sir Thomas Allen, Laura Sarti, Nancy Argenta and Emma Kirkby in the UK and France, and Sheila Amit in Italy. Recently, he accompanied masterclasses of Dame Margaret Price and Graham Johnson at the Flemish Opera Studio.

In song recitals, he appeared amongst others in the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Palais des Beaux-Arts and the Théâtre des Martyrs in Brussels, the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent and Antwerp and the Purcell Room, Barbican Hall and Leighton House in London. Recent performances include a musical homage to José Van Dam and a Finzi recital for Finzi's family. In May 2005 he made his début at the Wigmore Hall, London, with singers Jonathan Lemalu, Baritone, and Sandra Martinovic, soprano. He also accompanied them on BBC Radio 3 prograzmme “In Tune”.

He worked at the Royal Opera House La Monnaie in Belgium with Antonio Pappano, current director at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He also played and assisted for productions with conductors such as Kazushi Ono, Alessandro De Marchi and Renato Balsadonna.

Since October 2004 he is vocal music and repertoire coach at the Flemish Opera Studio. Besides his recital work, he plays as a free-lance pianist for the Collegium Vocale and De Filhazrmonie under the conductor, Philippe Herreweghe and for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Royal College of Music in London.

José BRANDÃO born in Oporto, Portugal, and studied in this town with the pianist Helena de Sá e Costa. By the time he finished his Piano diploma at Oporto Music Conservatoire he had already won a 2nd prize at the Portuguese Music Youth National Piano Competition. He then moved to Lisbon to study Musicology at the New University (UNL). Here, he began accompanying singers and realised how much he enjoyed the song repertoire and the nature of the work between singer and accompanist.

After graduating from the University, he continued working with Portuguese singers-students as well as established artists, and instrumentalists, playing in music schools, singing competitions, master classes and public recitals.

In March 1994, he successfully auditioned at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, motivated by a desire to develop his skills as an accompanist and to study with Graham Johnson. He stayed two years in London, following the post-graduate Piano Accompaniment Course at the Guildhall School, where he studied with Andrew Ball (piano), Gordon Back (chamber music) and Graham Johnson (song accompaniment). In this school he won the award for best accompanist at the 1995 John Ireland Prize and the 1996 Schubert Lieder Prize.

During the following three years he moved to Paris, having previously worked there as a free-lance pianist. He had the opportunity of playing for the singing classes of Noelle Barker, Jacqueline Bonnardot and Régine Crespin. He also attended master classes in song repertoire with Paul Hamburger, Martin Katz and Ruben Lifschitz.

José Brandão currently lives in Lisbon and is teaching at the National Conservatory of Music, where he has been in charge of the Opera Workshop for the last two years. He also teaches at the National Academy for Orchestral Training, where he coaches singers and pianists. He is in regular demand as an accompanist for song recitals.

Helder MARQUES diplomou-se em 2002 na Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf, onde estudou com o pianista Roberto Szidon. Em Portugal foi aluno de Maria Christina Pimentel e Jorge Moyano e trabalhou em Itália com Pietro De Maria. Actuou em recitais a solo e de música de câmara em Portugal, Alemanha, Coreia do Sul e Japão. É professor acompanhador na Escola de Música “Luís António Maldonado Rodrigues” de Torres Vedras e no Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa.

Maarten Hillenius nasceu na Holanda , onde estudou piano nos conservatórios de Amsterdão e Utrecht.Simultaneamente especializou-se em acompanhamento de canto , seguindo cursos con Noel Lee, Irwin Gage e Rudolf Jansen.Trabalha regularmente com diversos cantores, actuando em concerto em vários países da Europa e Japão. Faz também regularmente o acompanhamento dos cursos de canto orientados por,entre outros,Roberta Alexander na Holanda, Helmut Lips em Almada e Barcelona, Udo Reinemann em Paris e Festival de Monthodon, Max van Egmond, Loraine Nubar e Teresa Berganza em Mateus. Na Holanda acompanha frequentemente audições para  a Opera Nacional, Nationale Reisopera e  para os concursos de Belvedere e Cardiff. Trabalha regularmente no Operastudio Nederland. Lecciona no departamento do curso de canto no Codarts - Conservatório de Roterdão.