IE LIST OF PARTICIPANTS BIOGRAPHIES OPÉRA DE-CI DE-LÀ WORKSHOP: JANUARY 27 - 29, 2021 RESIDENCY: JUNE 7 - 12, 2021
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LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
BIOGRAPHIES
OPÉRA DE-CI DE-LÀ
WORKSHOP:
JANUARY 27 — 29, 2021
RESIDENCY:
JUNE 7 — 12, 2021OPÉRA DE-CI DE-LÀ RESIDENCY
Opéra de-ci de-là residency offers a training program that explores the strengths,
the stakes, and the potential for change in the opera industry. The program aims
at training young creators and performers to create collaborative and immersive
operas, in a setting that favors intercultural dialogue and interdisciplinary exchange.
By investigating innovative and creative processes, the program provides young artists
with the opportunity to develop short-form performances and offers them
an immersive experience in the public space.
The second edition of the Opéra de-ci de-là residency originally scheduled in March
and June 2020 will last for a full season. After a two-day videoconferencing seminar
in June 2020, 4 other sessions are held online during the fall, then 2 face-to-face
sessions in January and June 2021. MENTOR PARTICIPANTS
Gathering four composers, four stage directors, eight singers, four instrumentalists ANTHONY HEIDWEILLER CHRISTIAN ANDREAS — BARITONE
and two authors, the residency aims at underscoring the importance of storyline in SINGER AND ARTISTIC ASSOCIATED GEORDIE BROOKMAN — STAGE
intellectual discussions and the creative process. In the context of the pandemic, DIRECTOR OF THE OPERA FORWARD DIRECTOR
it also offers a unique space for reflection about the role of art in society today and FESTIVAL OF AMSTERDAM SIMONA CASTRIA — SAXOPHONE
how art can be used to respond in times of crisis. The theatre director and 17th- ÉLISE CHAUVIN — SOPRANO
century literature and modern science historian Frédérique Aït-Touati, contributed AMY CRANKSHAW — COMPOSER
to the reflection with her research on Harmonices Mund by the seventeenth-century JOSIE DAXTER — STAGE DIRECTOR
astronomer Johannes Kepler. This iconic book places art and sciences on an equal SEYDOU DIARRA — N’GONI, FLUTE
level and discusses the science of the natural world in poetic language. The PENDA DIOUF — PLAYWRIGHT
participants will translate Kepler’s inspiration into their own modern thinking, which MIMI DOULTON — SOPRANO
will result in a collective creation that places Courage and Feminism at its center. LILI GOMOND — SAXHORN
Anthony Heidweiller who regularly holds workshops on artistic projects with a COLIN HELLER — NICKELHARPA
participatory dimension, leads the residency. GOLFAM KHAYAM — COMPOSER
CARMEN C. KRUSE — STAGE DIRECTOR
This residency is supported by Ammodo and Total Foundation. EVAN LAWSON — COMPOSER
BENJAMIEN LYCKE — COMPOSER
ALBERTO MARTÍNEZ — BARITONE
HALIDOU NOMBRE — BARITONE
PAULINA PLATZER * — STAGE DIRECTOR
LAURE POISSONNIER — SOPRANO
ANNA SCHORS — MEZZO-SOPRANO
EIRA SJAASTAD HUSE — MEZZO-
SOPRANO
CLAIRE TIPY — PLAYWRIGHT, STAGE
DIRECTOR
* Participant supported by institutions members of
enoa network:
Theaterakademie August Everding – Munich
3MENTOR PARTICIPANT
ANTHONY HEIDWEILLER CHRISTIAN ANDREAS
BARITONE
SINGER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR GERMANY
THE NETHERLANDS
Christian Andreas holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the Royal College
of Music London studying under Peter Savidge and a Bachelor of Music in Opera
Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe under
Stephan Kohlenberg.
Anthony Heidweiller is a baritone, operamaker, creator, inspirer and promoter of Since his professional debut in 2009 as Brundibár in the opera of the same name
innovative opera concepts. Concepts such as participation and community arts are by Hans Krása at Heilbronn Theater in his native Germany, he has performed across
central to much of his work. In 2001, he set up a Youth Opera Festival (YO! Opera) Europe, Africa and the Americas, most notably singing in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion
to introduce opera to young people. In 2006, his Yo! Opera community arts project, (Pontifex) at the Teatro del Lago in Chile (2013). He made his debuts at Casino Bern with
Opera on the Bus, won an award for “the most innovative event”. In 2008, Yo! Opera the Berner Symphonieorchester and at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden as Taddeo in
was awarded the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds prize for art education. In 2011, he Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri / Käpt’n Bone in 2015 and 2016 respectively. He joined the
received the Culture Award of the Municipality of Utrecht. Since 2012, he has been Royal College of Music International Opera School for performances of Poulenc’s Les
artistic director of the Operamakers Foundation. In 2018, the music education Mamelles de Tiresias (Presto) and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (Harasta) in Britten
project Vocal Statements of Operamakers has been nominated. Besides his own Theatre London in 2017. The following year, he was invited to perform with the Royal
company Operamakers, he is affiliated with institutions such as the Dutch National Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall London, the Orchestra di Padua e del Veneto in
Opera, Artistic Associate Director Opera Forward Festival (nominated in 2018 as the Italy and at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, where he sang Il Conte di Monterone in
most important opera festival in the world), Artist in Residence Theaterschool and Verdi’s Rigoletto. He has been a member of the International Opera Studio at the Opéra
Conservatorium Amsterdam, Festival of Flanders Brussels and in Germany, RUHR National de Lyon since 2019. Recent engagements include Il Barone Douphol in Verdi’s
2010. In March 2019, he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts La traviata in Sicily and Don Inigo Gomez in Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole at the Opéra
and Sciences. National de Lyon.
He has worked with coaches including Roger Vignoles, Hartmut Höll and Júlia Várady-
Fischer-Dieskau and he has performed in masterclasses of Thomas Hampson, Christa
Ludwig, Peter Schreier, Brigitte Fassbaender, Thomas Quasthoff, Barbara Frittoli,
Ekaterina Semenchuk and Malcolm Martineau. He is also known for his work as a
professional chorister and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in Mozart’s Così
fan tutte (2012) and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2014) under the baton of Yannick
Nézet-Séguin and for Sony in Händel’s Alexander’s Feast (2019) conducted by Lorenzo
Ghirlanda.
www.christianandreas.com
4 5PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT
GEORDIE BROOKMAN SIMONA CASTRIA
STAGE DIRECTOR SAXOPHONE
AUSTRALIA ITALY
Geordie Brookman is one of Australia’s leading theatre and music theatre directors. From Simona Castria approached music at very early age by playing the piano. She then began
2012 to 2019, he was the Artistic Director and Co-CEO of State Theatre Company South playing the saxophone and studied in Italy, Belgium and France. In 2017, she joined Claude
Australia during which time he more than tripled the Company’s activity and instigated its Delangle’s prestigious class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse
first three ever international tours. de Paris for a Master in saxophone. Interested in improvised music, she also attended the
Since graduating from Flinders University Drama Centre, he has directed work around classes of Vincent Lê Quang and Alexandros Markeas. After obtaining her master’s degree
Australia, the United Kingdom and Asia. One of his latest productions for Frantic in 2019, she continues to perfect her skills in the field of contemporary music in Hae-Sun
Assembly and the Lyric Hammersmith, Things I Know to Be True, recently enjoyed a return Kang’s class. In the last few years, she won several prizes in national and international
four-month, sell-out season in the United Kingdom. His directing credits also include competitions as soloist or in chamber music configuration (saxophone quartets and duo
Machu Picchu, Kryptonite and Spring Awakening: The Musical (Sydney Theatre Company), with piano): Aexigentia competition, Ferrero prize, Cantarone prize and Rosa Ponselle
Animal Farm, The Gods of Strangers, Sense and Sensibility, In The Club, Vale, Macbeth, competition among others.
A Doll’s House, Betrayal, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Footfalls, The Importance of She performs as soloist and in several other musical settings such as orchestras (I
Being Earnest, Little Bird, The Seagull, Maggie Stone, Hedda Gabler, The Kreutzer Sonata, Pomeriggi Musicali, Ostinato workshop orchestra), ensembles (Intercontemporain,
Speaking In Tongues, romeo&juliet, Ghosts, Attempts on Her Life, The Dumb Waiter, Ensemble du Bout du Monde) and music chamber group (L’Impolie, La Frange). She has
Ruby Moon and Hot Fudge (State Theatre Company South Australia), Toy Symphony played under the direction of conductors such as Pierre-André Valade, Simon Proust, Léo
(Queensland Theatre Company), Knives In Hens (Malthouse Theatre), Metro Street (Arts Margue and Timothy Brock. Very interested in crossing and mixing the arts, she often
Asia Pacific, Power Arts, Daegu International Musicals Festival), Baghdad Wedding, Tender collaborates with artists from different backgrounds. She performs at the Casa Cava
and Disco Pigs (Belvoir), The City (nowyesnow), Marathon, Morph and The Return (Fresh theatre in Matera (Italy) and at the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse in Lyon, and plays regularly
Track), Tiny Dynamite (Griffin), Macbeth and The Laramie Project (Adelaide College of the with the dancers and musicians of the improvisation collective “Les Heures Perdues”.
Arts). His productions have won and received nominations for Helpmann, Greenroom, Fascinated by contemporary music, she researches the recent repertoire for saxophone and
Sydney Critics Circle, Adelaide Critics Circle and Curtain Call awards and appeared in works with young composers as well as the most well-known (Stefano Gervasoni, Bruno
festivals including MONA FOMA, Midsumma, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and the Mantovani, Ivan Fedele, among others). She has been part of several important concerts and
Adelaide International Festival of the Arts. He has also worked as a producer, dramaturge, festivals in Europe as well as in America (International Stage of the Saxophone in Fermo,
teacher, event director and curator for organizations including the Adelaide Festival, the International Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, Les Nuits de Fourvière in Lyon, Courants
National Play Festival, University of Wollongong, Australian Theatre for Young People, d’airs in Bruxelles, Full Sax Day in Lima, Andorra Sax Fest) where she shared the stage
Australian Fashion Week and Queensland Theatre Company. with internationally acclaimed artists. She is also interested in teaching. She collaborates
with music schools and with international campus for young players to teach music to the
most economically disadvantaged children in various Latin American countries in order to
promote their creative and personal development. She is regularly supported by Société
Générale Musical Patronage and the Meyer Foundation.
6 7PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT ÉLISE CHAUVIN AMY CRANKSHAW SOPRANO COMPOSER FRANCE SOUTH AFRICA Élise Chauvin began music at the age of 10 at the Paris regional conservatory. After Amy Crankshaw (born 1991) is a South African composer based in London. She studied studying music at the École Normale de Paris and then philosophy, she joined the her Masters in Composition (MMus) at the South African College of Music (UCT) under Opera Studio in Lyon. Hendrik Hofmeyr (2015), and completed an MA in Opera-Making and Writing at the As soloist, she interpreted Violetta in La traviata (Verdi), Sophie in Werther and Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Julian Philips (2020). She is currently Noémie in Cinderella (Massenet), Despina in Così fan tutte (Mozart), Pauline in La studying for her Doctorate of Music in composition at the Guildhall School of Music Vie parisienne (Offenbach), Mina in Euphonia (Michaël Levinas) among others. She and Drama in London. She was awarded 2nd prize in the South African Music Rights works with composers such as Philippe Hurel, Michaël Levinas, Diana Soh or Yann Organisation’s quadrennial International Scholarship for Composers in 2014. Her trio Robin. As a member of the ensemble Le Balcon, she participated in numerous From the Valley of Desolation is featured in Volume 12 (second issue) of The Journal of concerts and operas such as Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss), Le Balcon (Péter Eötvös), the Musical Arts in Africa, published in December 2015. Licht (Stockhausen), La Métamorphose (Michaël Levinas) or The First Murder (Arthur She took up the place of composer-in-residence with the London City Orchestra in Lavandier). She performed on prestigious stages including the Philharmonie de Paris, their 2016 summer term, which saw the premiere of her orchestral piece Paper Bird. the Opéra Comique, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Teatro Colón in Buenos She has worked with a variety of leading musicians and ensembles throughout South Aires, the Southbank Center, the Operas of Shanghai, Singapore, Lille, Marseille. Africa and Europe and was recently commissioned by Radio France to compose During the 2020-2021 season, she will perform at the Philharmonie de Paris the role a piece for pianist Vanessa Wagner, for performance at Festival Présences 2021. of Eva in Stockhausen’s Dienstag aus Licht conducted by Maxime Pascal as well as Together with librettist Clare Best, she developed her first opera The Apothecary for the world premiere of Philippe Hurel’s Périple on a text by Tanguy Viel, alongside performance at Silk Street Theatre, London, in 2021 as part of the Guildhall School Alain Billard and the Trio KDM. This season will also be marked by the revival of Yann of Music and Drama’s Opera Makers Programme. In July 2019, she participated in the Robin’s Le Papillon noir at the Théâtre national de Bretagne and on tour with the Opera Creation Workshop at the Festival d’Aix, led by composer Pascal Dusapin. Ensembles Multilatérale conducted by Léo Warynski, as well as the touring revival of Matteo Franceschini’s Alice in Wonderland with the Frivolités parisiennes at the www.amycrankshaw.com Théâtre impérial de Compiègne and the Théâtre national de Nice. 8 9
PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT JOSIE DAXTER SEYDOU DIARRA STAGE DIRECTOR N’GONI, FLUTE UNITED KINGDOM BURKINA FASO Josie is based in London and works internationally in opera and theatre. Born in a griot family, Seydou Diarra started music at the age of 6. He was initially She is revival director of Simon McBurney’s productions of A Dog’s Heart and Die trained by his father, a balafonist from Faso Djigui band. He first learned bara Zauberflöte and assisted on the creation and revivals of The Rake’s Progress. She (traditional percussion) and djembe before extending his practice to other traditional is directing the revivals of Romeo Castellucci’s Requiem, having assisted on its instruments: pentatonic and diatonic balafon, n’goni and flute. creation for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Josie has worked in theatre as an actor He has taken part in several festivals in Burkina Faso including the National Culture and movement director and has extensive experience in devised, physical theatre Week, In-Out Dance Festival, Ciné Droit Libre, Art’Dougou, Jazz à Ouaga, Bolo’arts and and puppetry. She has been creatively involved with Complicite since 2010 and SIAO. He has also played with orchestras and the artists Flèche and Luc Perrin. also collaborates with physical theatre company Pappy Show. She has led courses, education projects and workshops for professionals, students and teachers across theatre, opera and puppetry. She is interested in weaving together her experience in theatre and opera to create and direct new work in collaboration with musicians, actors, dancers and other artists. www.josiedaxter.com 10 11
PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT
PENDA DIOUF MIMI DOULTON
PLAYWRIGHT SOPRANO
SENEGAL / FRANCE UNITED KINGDOM / PAKISTAN
Penda Diouf is a theater author and has directed during 10 years four libraries in Saint-Denis Mimi Doulton is a soprano of British-Pakistani origin, with a particular interest in
in France. She is also co-founder, with Anthony Thibault, of the label Jeunes Textes en contemporary opera and song. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and
Liberté, an itinerant theater festival which promotes the authors of contemporary theater Drama with distinction in 2018, where her studies were supported by the Guildhall
and tries to fill the gaps in terms of representation and narration. She is an associate artist School Trust, the Humphrey Richardson Taylor Trust, the Mario Lanza Educational
at the Centre dramatique national de Valence under the direction of Marc Lainé. Her play La Foundation, the Charity of Mary Barnes and three private donors. Previously, she was
Grande Ourse is published by Quartett éditions. Her play Pistes… staged by Aristide Tarnagda the Helen Hudson choral scholar at King’s College London, graduating with first-class
will be on tour in 2021 in France at CDN de Valence and at MC93 as part of the Festival honors in Music and Languages in 2015. She is a Live Music Now Artist, a Longborough
d’Automne. She is also president of the association Scènes appartagées which promotes Festival Emerging Artist, a Leeds Lieder Young Artist, an Opera Prelude Artist and a
theater readings in a family context. She leads writing workshops too. Park Lane Group Young Artist. In 2017–2018, she was the vocal scholar at Fondation
Royaumont’s Academie Voix Nouvelles, won third place at the Music Club of London
Competition, and was a finalist at the Dean & Chadlington Competition.
In 2021, she is making role debuts as Jano in Jenůfa (Fulham Opera), Sandmann/
Teumann in Hansel und Gretel (Fulham Opera), Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia (Palace
Opera) and Pepik in The Cunning Little Vixen (Longborough Festival Opera). Recent
engagements include cover Jerusha Cramer in Gerald Barry’s The Intelligence Park
for Music Theatre Wales and the Royal Opera, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with
Merry Opera Company and creating the role of Mary in Wake with Birmingham Opera
Company (directed by Graham Vick CBE). She has also created roles in Blue Electric and
Schutzwall at Tête-à-tête, and developed new opera with the Royal Opera, Mahogany
Opera Group and Snape Maltings. As a recitalist she has premiered works at venues
including Wigmore Hall, Club Inégales and Fondation Royaumont. She was part of the
London Symphony Orchestra’s ‘This is Rattle’ Festival in 2017–2018, and performed
Copland’s 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson in the Barbican Hall as part of the orchestra’s
Bernstein Centenary celebrations. Recital repertoire for the 2019–2020 season includes
Messiaen’s Chants de terre et de ciel, Richard Strauss’ Ophelia Lieder, and Ravel and
Debussy’s settings of Stephane Mallarmé. Concert plans for the 2021-22 season include
a return to Wigmore Hall and a tour with sound-artist Jonathan Higgins.
www.mimidoulton.com
12 13PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT LILI GOMOND COLIN HELLER SAXHORN NICKELHARPA FRANCE FRANCE Lili Gomond began to play saxhorn at the age of 7. In 2017, she graduated from the After studying violin, piano, organ and baroque violin (mainly at the Conservatoire of Paris regional conservatory and joined the Orchestra of the Nouveau Théâtre de Aix-en-Provence), he continues to study baroque violin in the Conservatoire National Montreuil. She continued to perfect herself in a classical course with Corentin Morvan Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon. and in a jazz course with Sébastien Llado, while doing a license in plastic arts with Immersed very early in a broad musical universe, from the age of 10, he taught himself the CNED at the Sorbonne. She also took lyric singing lessons with Sophie Hervé and to play various instruments such as mandolins, medieval gittern, swedish nyckelharpa, participated to the DEMOS program of the Philharmonie de Paris. In 2013 and 2015, she norwegian hardingfele and viola d’amore to name but a few. Multi-instrumentalist won the International tuba competition of Tours. and open to all sorts of musical influences, he embraces in addition to his areas She works with many musicians such as François Thuillier, Jean-Xavier Mary, David of predilection that are baroque and traditional music, a wide range of different Maillot, Hélène Escriva, Yvelise Girard and Anthony Caillet. In 2016, after a double lung disciplines including classical, jazz, song and even rock. He also has taken a close operation, she called her instrumental, musical and artistic approach into question. interest in music for theatre, ballet and cinema, and composed several original pieces Without any sensations, she had to relearn how to play and decided to feed herself of music in some of these paths. Member from 2012 to 2014 of the Mediterranean with theater, dance, circus, plastic arts and video to create her own artistic world. She Youth Orchestra as a violinist (where he played under Alain Altinoglu, François-Xavier created the company Le Furor Poetico which is supported by the company Le Balcon Roth and Gianandrea Noseda), he also participated at the Medinea intercultural for its professionalization. In 2019, with the support of Xavier Delette, the director of sessions in 2015, 2019 and 2020. He has also been for a long time a member of the the Paris regional conservatory, she staged an opera based on La Machine infernale by Violons du Rigodon, a band of 20 violinists playing the traditional repertoire of the Jean Cocteau created by the composer Giancarlo Stafetti in which she performed the old violoneux (fiddlers) of the South French Alps. His curiosity and boundless interest saxhorn too. Since June 2019, she is writing and imagining the dramaturgy, the staging, in the multiple facets of music have brought him to collaborate with many artists the scenography and the choreography of a new show: [Ceci est un adieu au langage] of different horizons, such as traditional musicians Patrick Vaillant, Françoise Atlan, whose music was composed by Mael Bailly. Maxime Pascal granted them a “carte Moneim Adwan, Gabriel Lenoir, Daniel Muringer, Manu Théron, Deluxe rock band, blanche” at the Singer-Polignac Foundation for several rehearsals of this creation from comedians and directors Didier Rousselet and Côme de Bellescize. September 2020 to January 2021. In September 2020, she joined Adrien Béal and his company Théâtre Déplié for a series of performances of Les Pièces Manquantes at the Théâtre de la Tempête. She worked again with them in December 2020, recording the original music of their creation Toute la vérité, broadcast on T2G in February 2021. 14 15
PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT
GOLFAM KHAYAM CARMEN C. KRUSE
COMPOSER STAGE DIRECTOR
IRAN AUSTRIA / GERMANY
Golfam Khayam is an Iranian composer and improviser. She was born and grew up Carmen C. Kruse is an Austrian German freelance opera director and new works
in Iran in a family of artists in Tehran. She holds a Master of Music from the College- collaborator. In her immersive and devised work, she focuses on creating places of
Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati and a Master of “Interprétation encounters. She enjoys leaving conventional spaces and working with living composers
specialisée” solist and composition at Geneva University in Switzerland. She has been to explore new topics, regions and their people. She studied music and media
winner of numerous prizes which includes International Rostrum of Composer in management with a focus on “opera and innovation” in Munich and San Diego.
category of windows on the world and a full grant fellowship prize from the HES-SO From 2016 to 2019, she assisted directors such as Jossi Wieler, David Alden, Vera
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland. Nemirova, Krzysztof Warlikowski and Alex Ollé at the Salzburg Easter Festival, Deutsche
Since 2016, she has signed with the German label ECM records along numerous other Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Mainz and Staatsoper Stuttgart while continuing to develop
recordings worldwide. Her personal language is rooted in Persian music while seeking and direct her own productions. After co-directing Händel’s Rodelinda and Mozart’s Così
her language in a path between the two worlds of the east and west. Her music is so far fan tutte, she directed Cavalli’s L’Egisto at the Halifax Summer Opera Festival 2017. Two
featured in Elbphilharmonie, Klangwerstatt, NPR “songs we love”, Danish Cultural Radio, devised pieces followed shortly: Ein Käfig voller Diven at Staatstheater Mainz and SDDS:
BBC3, Deutchewele. She is currently associate professor in Tehran Art University. Defiance with an amateur choir of sixty at Staatsoper Stuttgart. In 2018, she won the
directing competition of the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden, the Berliner Philharmoniker
www.golfamkhayam.com and the Deutsche Bank Stiftung and was invited to the 2018 Directors Lab at Lincoln
Center Theater, where she directed scenes from A. Washburns I Have Loved Strangers.
In 2019, she won the Cross Award in Verbania, was a a finalist of the new music theater
competition OPER.A 20.21 of the Fondazione Haydn Stiftung and directed the world
premieres of Victoria Bonds Clara at the Easter Festival Baden-Baden and Thierry
Tidrow’s micro-opera A Safe and Special Place at Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt. Together
with composer Manuel Zwerger she currently develops a community-based new
work at Teatro Maggiore, premiering in June 2021. She is an alumna of the Akademie
Musiktheater heute (Directing-Scholarship, 2017-19), the BMP Producer Academy
in New York (2020) and the Women Opera Makers Workshop with Katie Mitchell at
the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2020. Since June 2020, she is the Co-Artistic Director
of Civic Opera Creations, a producer for new opera and music theater co-created in
thought exchange between communities and artists.
www.cckruse.com
16 17PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT EVAN LAWSON BENJAMIEN LYCKE COMPOSER COMPOSER AUSTRALIA BELGIUM Evan J. Lawson (born 1989) is one of Australia’s leading queer artists, working at the Benjamien Lycke (born 1989, Torhout) studied composition at the Royal Conservatory of forefront of contemporary culture as composer, curator and conductor, chiefly as Ghent (Ba & Ma) and the Royal College of Music London (Post-Grad). artistic director of Forest Collective. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts He wrote and produced as graduation piece in Gent the opera Acubens which was and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He has studied with Benjamin Northey, broadcast entirely on the Belgian national television (VRT) and was his first step with his Richard Gill, Johanna Selleck, David Aronson (at the Wiener Staatsoper) and Matthias collective SYNART to accomplish all kind of projects. He wrote with librettist and director Pintscher (at Grafenegg Festival). He was composer-in-residence at Billilla Mansion Mien Bogaert several chamber operas with performances in London (Puck, Socsob), in 2015 and has completed developing artist programs with the Malthouse Theatre, Hamburg (Cyclops) and Bruges (MONU - een multimediaal oorlogsrequiem). Besides Grafenegg Festival and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. soundtracks for movies (Memento Mori), games and advertisements (Chanel), he composes He has performed across Australia, Asia, Europe and the USA, working with a variety contemporary concert music for small (Kugoni Trio, Triotique) and big ensembles (Symfonie of companies, such as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orkest Vlaanderen). Choir, opera (Flandria, LOD) and experimental, multidisciplinary projects Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Moravska Filharmonie, Forest Collective, ANAM are his favourites. He programmed light and music for Tinkling I (detheatermaker) by Talitha Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Geelong Symphony De Decker (choreographer) and the soundtrack for SNAP XL (Fabuleus). Orchestra, Density 512, Gertrude Opera, Performance Space, Ranters Theatre, Prismatx Ensemble, Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra, Australian Children’s Choir www.benjamien.be and Syzygy Ensemble, for Melbourne International Arts Festival, Metropolis New Music Festival, Grafenegg Festival (Austria), Dublin Theatre Festival, Sydney’s Mardi Gras, Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Melbourne Recital Centre, Malthouse Theatre, CarriageWorks, Jinji Lake Concert hall (China), Midsumma Festival, the Universities of Melbourne, Paris, Texas and Oregon as well as SoundSCAPE New Music Festival (Italy). As opera conductor, he has performed Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River (Gertrude Opera, Linda Thompson dir.), Bizet’s Carmen (In Good Company, Greg Eldridge, dir.), Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea (Gertrude Opera, Yarra Valley Opera Festival, Gale Edwards AM dir.), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Gertrude Opera, Linda Thompson dir.) and his own two operas Calypso (Forest Collective) and Orpheus (Forest Collective, Density 512 & Prismatx Ensemble). His practice goes beyond the standard concert hall to encompass various collaborative works including Nico with Cabaret sensation Danielle Asciak, the premiere of his dance-opera Orpheus with choreographer Ashley Dougan, fluttering hearts // thinking machines by pop music doyen Addison, Australian premiere of Holcombe Waller’s Requiem Mass: LGBT (Mardi Gras, Performance Space and Carriageworks) and Come Away with Me to the End of the World (by Adriano and Raymondo Cortese for Ranters Theatre, Malthouse Theatre and Dublin Theatre Festival). www.evanjlawson.com 18 19
PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT ALBERTO MARTÍNEZ HALIDOU NOMBRE BARITONE BARITONE SPAIN FRANCE Spanish baritone Alberto Martínez studied flute and singing at the Conservatory of Halidou Nombre took his first steps on stage in the musical comedy world before Salamanca, received a Master in opera performance at the Conservatory of Valencia joining a soul big band performing the great Motown classics. Interested in dance, and a Postgraduate diploma at the International Opera Academy in Ghent. He studied he joined the contemporary dance company of the Sorbonne University under the with David Menéndez, Gary Jankowski, Deborah Polaski, Ofelia Sala, Javier San direction of Corinne Virmont during his graduate studies. The chances of life lead him Miguel, Dietrich Henschel and Manuel Burgueras, among others. to the lyrical repertoire, which appeared to be a true revelation for him. He started He has performed the roles of Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Mozart), Nardo in La finta his training in Saint-Ouen Conservatoire with Frédérique Epin, before perfecting his giardiniera (Mozart), Belcore in L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti), Schaunard in La Bohème skills with Pierre Catala and Guillemette Laurens. Graduated with a Diploma of Musical (Puccini), L’Horloge and Le Chat in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Ravel), Le Dancaïre Study (DEM) from the Paris regional conservatory, he joined in 2018 the concertiste in Carmen (Bizet), The Drunken Poet and The Winter in The Fairy Queen (Purcell), graduation program belonging to the same conservatory in the class of Elsa Maurus Uberto in La serva padrona (Pergolesi), Brundibár in Brundibár (Kràsa), Brabantische and the opera academy of Monte. He participated in numerous masterclasses, Edle in Lohengrin (Wagner), Golaud in Petit Pelléas (based on Pelléas et Mélisande by including one with Ruggero Raimondi regarding Don Giovanni and the Count in Mozart’s Debussy) and Beck in A Matter of Triumph and Void (based on Triumph of Spirit over Le nozze di Figaro. Matter and Void by W. Henderickx). He also performed zarzuela roles like Ricardo As a stage true lover, he has distinguished himself in several roles since his debut in Martín in El barbero de Sevilla (Giménez and Nieto), Lamparilla in El barberillo de both opera and operette, including the repertoire of chamber music and lieder, which Lavapiés (Barbieri) and Joaquín in La del Manojo de Rosas (Sorozabal). He sang several he was able to approach with Jean-Marc Pont Marchesi. He also tried his hand as stage oratorio masterpieces including Messiah (Handel), Requiem (Fauré), Requiem (Mozart), director in a Dido and Aeneas production at the Hotel Gouthière in Paris. His repertoire Lazarus (Schubert), Ein deutsches Requiem (Brahms) and Bach cantatas within the includes Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Geronimo in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio project “Bach Studium”, conducted by Alfonso Sebastián. He worked with conductors segreto (2015), Le Marquis de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmélites (2016), Korneel Bernolet (Apotheosis), Philip Raté (Spectra ensemble), Alejo Pérez (Opera the Drunken poet and the Hymen in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Grabuge in Offenbach’s Vlaanderen), Otto Tausk (Belgian National Orchestra), Eduardo López Banzo (Al ayre Geneviève de Brabant, René in Maurice Yvain’s Elle est à vous (2017) and Golaud in español), Javier Castro (Ars Nova) and Jordi Francés, and directors David Alden, Debussy’s Pélleas et Mélisande, Mercutio in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette (2018). For Darren Ross, Jorinde Keesmaat, Gema Beltran, Alberto Barba, Lucija Brnic, Wolfgang the 2019-2020 season, he started a concert tour with the contemporary opera Jungle Gruber and Guy Joosten. He performed in Teatro Liceo in Salamanca, Auditorio inspired by Kipling’s Jungle Book at the operas of Limoges, Bordeaux and Tours, as Nacional de Música in Madrid, Palau de la Música and Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Escamillo (Bizet’s Carmen) at the Théâtre Royal de Mons in Belgium and as Don Alfonso Miry Concertzaal, Minardschowburg and Muziekcentrum De Bijloke in Ghent, BOZAR (Così fan tutte) at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Charleroi. He was also invited to the and Téâtre royal des galeries in Brussels, Concertgebouw in Brugge and the Kunsthuis Mozartiades in Brussels for a concert around the Da Ponte trilogy. Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp and Ghent. www.alberto-martinez.com 20 21
PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT
PAULINA PLATZER LAURE POISSONNIER
STAGE DIRECTOR SOPRANO
GERMANY FRANCE
Paulina Platzer (born 1996) lives and works in Munich. After finishing her bachelor Graduated from a Master of Vocal Performance at the Royal College of Music in
degree in theater studies at Ludwig Maximilians University, she has continued her London, the Conservatoire de Paris and the Sorbonne, the French soprano Laure
education since October 2019 with the master’s degree in dramaturgy at Theater Poissonnier integrates the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris (Atelier Lyrique) for
Academy August Everding. seasons 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.
In July 2019, she directed her first piece LOsT – Eine Spiegelung in fünf Bildern, which During her first season, she was cover rehearsal of Aleksandra Kurzak for the role
was shown at Studiobühne. During her free time, she works as a music critic for the of Adina in Elisir d’amore by Donizetti, staging by Laurent Pelly. She participated in
online music magazine www.lifeonstage.de and reviews albums and concerts. After concerts and recitals at the Amphitheatre Bastille, where she played Le Garçon of
assisting Cornelie Müller, Gert Neuner, Robert Spitz and Waltraud Lehner, she most the french creation Vol Retour by Johanna Lee, Euridice and Speranza in Orfeo by
recently accompanied Emre Akal’s production Nur ihr wisst, ob wir es geschafft haben Monteverdi. She also performed as a soloist in the Seven Last Words of Christ on
werden, which premiered in November 2019 at HochX Theater in Munich. She is an the Cross by Haydn, with Marie-Christine Barrault and the Orchestre de Pau Pays de
active member of AYŞE X Staatstheater (house of conceptualizing). Béarn conducted by Fayçal Karoui. During the Académie, she is Mrs Julian (Owen
Wingrave) by Britten, Amour (Les Fêtes d’Hébé) by Rameau, Helena (Midsummer
Night’s Dream) by Britten and the Paggio della Duchessa (Rigoletto) by Verdi in May-
June 2017 on the main stage of Bastille, staged by Claus Guth. She has also taken
part in Masterclasses with Philippe Jordan, Ildar Adbrazakov, Philippe Cassard,
Jeff Cohen, Irène Kudela, Leontina Vaduva, Sally Burgess, John Tomlinson and the
stage director Mariame Clément. For the “Jeune Public” in Opéra Bastille, she sang
the creation Merveille by Pierre Rigal in Bastille, in France and Switzerland. That
piece will be played at Les Hivernales in Avignon and at the Opéra de Rouen. She
gives recitals with the Paris Opera Consort in China (musicians of the Orchestre
de l’Opéra national de Paris), the Festival 1001 Notes!, the Festival de la Chéronne,
the Académie Ravel and the association Jeunes Talents. Recently, she gave recitals
with the pianist François Moschetta. Her preparation of roles includes, among
others, Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi by Puccini), Adina (L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti),
Sophie (Werther by Massenet), Zerlina (Don Giovanni by Mozart), Eurydice (Orphée
et Eurydice by Gluck) and Euridice (Orfeo by Monteverdi). She was Lauretta in
Gianni Schicchi by Puccini with the Westminster Opera Company, staging by
Stephen Taylor. She also appeared in 2018 in Genius Picasso, produced by National
Geographic, and she sang extracts of La Bohème by Puccini.
www.laurepoissonniersoprano.net
22 23PARTICIPANT PARTICIPANT ANNA SCHORS EIRA SJAASTAD HUSE MEZZO-SOPRANO MEZZO-SOPRANO GERMANY NORWAY The mezzo-soprano Anna Schors was born in Cologne and raised in Brussels The young Norwegian mezzo-soprano Eira Sjaastad Huse divides her time equally and Berlin. She still lives in Berlin, where she completed her vocal studies at the between opera and lieder. She is a recipient of Arts Counsil Norway's 2-year Work Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” and the Universität der Künste Berlin. Grant for Young Artists 2019-2020 and she is a prizewinner of Kammeroper Schloss- In 2019 she appeared as a guest soloist at Staatsoper Berlin’s Kopernikus (Claude Rheinsberg 2019. Vivier), a production of the International Opera Studio. As a singer with an innate love Highlights in the 2019-2020 season included a tour to Royal Opera House Muscat (OM) for literature and philosophy, she has developed a strong interest in contemporary and her mainstage debut at Opéra de Lyon as La chatte/L'écureuil/Un pâtre in Ravel's music. In spring 2018, she was cast for the world premiere of Wir aus Glas by Yasutaki L'enfant et les sortilèges. Other recent highlights include a debut at the Norwegian Inamori at Deutsche Oper Berlin. She also appeared at the Deutsche Oper in the National Opera as Second Woman/Second Witch in an opera/ballet production role of die Vorgesetzte in Robert Krampe’s Unsichtbare Fronten. During her studies, of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Bastien in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne at the Oslo she starred in numerous productions of the traditional repertoire such as Mozart’s Chamber Music Festival 2020, Lady Capulet in Boris Blacher's Romeo and Juliet with Le nozze di Figaro or Janácek’s Cunning Little Vixen. She also performed the role of the Opéra National de Lyon's Opera Studio and Grieg's lied cycle Haugtussa at Oxford Marchesa di Melibea in a production of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims at UNI.T theatre Lieder. She also performed in Schoenberg’s The Book of the Hanging Gardens semi- in Berlin. She has received further artistic inspiration as an active participant of staged by Georg Quander. She has played with artists and ensembles such as Titus master classes with the likes of Andreas Scholl, Eric Schneider, Malcolm Martineau, Engel, Henning Kraggerud, Grégoire Pont, James Bonas, Jean Lacornerie, Clemens Wolfram Rieger, Gudrun Bär, Claudia Eder, Edith Mathis, Julie Kaufmann and Dame Flick, Oliver John Ruthven, Musica Poetica, Ensemble Ascolta, Pocket Sinfonia, Nicholas Felicity Lott. As a member of the Barock Vokal Young Artist’s Programme, she Kok and Emmanuel Calef. performed the role of Ottavia by Claudio Monteverdi (L’incoronazione di Poppea) at She will take part in the 2021 Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique. In 2022, she will portray the 2018 Barocknächte festival in Darmstadt. In 2016, she sang Dorabella in a concert Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at Ramme Gård (NO). production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the North Bohemian Symphony Orchestra and the European Music Academy in Prague. She performed in concerts in and www.eirahuse.no around Berlin (Bach’s Oratorios, Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder). In 2019, she sang in a recital at the Richard-Strauss- Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Also, together with the pianist Paul Heller and musicologist Maria Behrendt, she performed in lecture recitals throughout Germany dedicated to newly discovered Lied repertoire. www.annaschors.com 24 25
PARTICIPANT CRÉDITS PHOTOS
Simona Castria © Elise Comte
CLAIRE TIPY Mimi Doulton © Alexa Wilding
Colin Heller © François Heller
PLAYWRIGHT, STAGE DIRECTOR Carmen C. Kruse © C. Vladar
Evan Lawson © Karin Locke
FRANCE / BURKINA FASO Laure Poissonnier © Capucine de Chocqueuse
Anna Schors © Martin Raack
Eira Sjaastad Huse © Nino Felbab
Création graphique – Irma Boom
Exécution graphique – Laurie Wagner
Claire Tipy is a writer, director and actress, and the cofounder of RPS Theatre company.
After studying political sciences and theatre in Lyon and London, she moved to Burkina
Faso in 2016 to work artistically on under-represented stories and narratives. She has
collaborated with several burkinabe artists and has written and directed Where do you
think I was born? and Dix Lions / Buugness Piiga / Ten Lions with RPS Theatre. Her last
play Des pintades et des manguiers is a Jeunes textes en liberté 2020 laureate and
will be produced in Burkina in 2021. Her writing, fun and accessible, is based on real
testimonies and focuses on the impact of contemporary issues on the everyday life of
individuals. She is currently working with Sidiki Yougbare on theatre writing in national
African languages. In 2021, she will be at La Comédie de Valence for a two-month
residency to write her new play, a crossed story between Ardèche (France) and Bam
(Burkina Faso).
www.rpstheatre.com
26THE ACADÉMIE DU FESTIVAL IS SUPPORTED BY: SINCE ITS CREATION IN 1998, THE ACADÉMIE HAS ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS A CENTRE FOR VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL EXCELLENCE, A PLACE TO REFLECT ON OPERA CREATION TODAY AND TO EXPERIMENT WITH NEW INNOVATIVE FORMATS, WHILE ALSO SERVING AS A SPACE THAT PROMOTES AND AIDS THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG ARTISTS. AMMODO Ammodo initiates, develops and supports projects in the visual arts, performing arts and sciences. Artists and scientists often see things before other people do. They identify social trends, extend boundaries and make revolutionary discoveries. By providing artists and scientists with the space and time to really immerse themselves in their work, and by helping to showcase that work, Ammodo seeks to stimulate the development of the arts and sciences. Ammodo supports the realisation of the new opera Innocence and the Opera de-ci de-là residency. TOTAL FOUNDATION Total Foundation actively leads and participates in actions of solidarity throughout the world on a daily basis through its sites, its subsidiaries and its corporate foundation which stems from Total Group. With its solidarity program, Total is committed to contributing to the development of the zones where it is present. While focusing on youth, Total’s actions can be seen in four different areas including road safety, climate, coastal areas and oceans, education and the professional integration of young people, and dialogue around the subject of culture and heritage. Within the context of this fourth objective, Total Foundation supports artistic projects that promote social inclusion, empower youth, and bring vitality to the regions where Total Group is present. The Opéra de-ci de-là residency proposed by the Académie du Festival d’Aix is a project that brings together all these objectives. Total Foundation provided support and accompanied the Académie during this first session whose aim was to help young artists create participatory forms of opera. Sharing these newly elaborated and condensed forms of opera which were created during the residency with audiences in Aix-en-Provence free of charge adds a dynamic element to the daily life of the city. The operas were performed in public spaces and showcase heritaged that can sometimes be overlooked, the everyday life of the residents of Aix. THE ACADEMIE IS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE NETWORK SUPPORTED BY
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