Mozart – "Die Zauberflöte"

Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra – Symphony Academy is a unique musical collective and the largest youth project in the orchestral field. It was created in September 2018 with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and is being developed as part of the national project Culture. The Moscow Philharmonic Society is the curator of the project. In its creative work, the orchestra combines Russian musical traditions and international experience, solving three fundamental questions – art, educational and enlightenment. Such combination of functions, none of which is auxiliary, has no analogues.

Today the orchestra consists of 128 musicians from 35 regions of Russia. The project makes high demands on the participants: a large amount of educational, rehearsal and concert work, the need for personal and professional dedication, discipline, and passion. For the development of young musicians, unprecedented conditions have been created: excellent rehearsal base, intensive concert life, cooperation with the best conductors and soloists of the world, classes with concertmasters of major orchestras and professors of famous music high schools.

An important role in the development of the project participants is played by the work with outstanding conductors. The orchestra performed under the direction of outstanding conductors: Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Mikhail Jurowski, Alexander Lazarev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Charles Dutoit, Pinchas Zukerman, Thomas Zehetmair, Vasily Petrenko, Julian Rachlin, Vassily Sinaisky, Philippe Herreweghe, Tugan Sokhiev, Marc Minkowski, Paavo Järvi, Lionel Bringuier and Jean-Christophe Spinosi. The soloists performing with the orchestra were Denis Matsuev, Alexandre Kantorow, Nikolay Lugansky, Alexander Romanovsky, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Piotr Beczała, Julia Lezhneva, Miklós Sebestyén, Sabine Devieilhe, Khibla Gerzmava, Maxim Vengerov, Carolin Widmann, Erwin Schrott, Thomas Hampson, Sonya Yoncheva, to name a few.

Today RNYSO is an integral part of the concert life of the country: during six seasons it held more than 280 concerts, having performed in 43 Russian cities. The RNYSO concerts took place on two main stages of the Moscow Philharmonic, Mariinsky-2 Concert Hall, on the Red Square in Moscow and have being broadcast by Medici.tv. In the first years of its life, the RNYSO presented a number of major symphonic programs, took part in the international festivals, as well as in major cultural and public events.

The RNYSO repertoire is being constantly replenished with symphonies of Beethoven, Berlioz, Weber, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Shostakovich, Lokshin, Schnittke, works by Mozart, Glinka, Schumann, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Ives, Respighi, Pärt, Tarnopolsky, Reich, Zimmermann, Staud, Widmann, Ligeti, Sysoev, Boulez, Xenakis, Berg, Varese, Romitelli and Adams, along with the greatest composers of the Baroque era. In November 2020, the collective was honored to open the 7th International Contemporary Music Festival Another Space. In summer 2021, the orchestra has performed in the largest European halls, such as KKL Luzern Concert Hall and Wiener Musikverein.

In the season 2024/25 the orchestra takes part in the Another Space. Continuo, All of Stravinsky, The Language of Music, Musica sacra nova subscription concerts performing under the baton of Yuri Bashmet, Dmitry Jurowski, Philipp Chizhevsky, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Alexander Sladkovsky, Fyodor Lednev with such soloists as Denis Matsuev, Boris Berezovsky, Dmitry Shishkin, Angel Wong, Vadim Repin, Daniil Kogan, Boris Andrianov, Alexander Ramm.

An experienced and versatile conductor, Christopher Moulds is in demand at opera houses throughout Europe. Enjoying strong links with both the Staatsoper Berlin and the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Moulds conducts repertoire ranging from Monteverdi, Handel and Mozart through to Britten’s Turn of the Screw and contemporary works such as Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy.

In the season 2018/19 he made his debut at San Francisco Opera with Orlando, at Oper Stuttgart with Ariodante and Purcell’s King Arthur at Theatre Basel as well as returning to Semperoper Dresden.

Moulds is often seen leading the baroque opera repertoire. In January 2015 he led Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, a co-production between the Royal Opera House and the Roundhouse which received much critical acclaim. Other recent performances include Semele at the Händel-Festspiele Karlsruhe, La Calisto at Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and last season he returned to Madrid for Sasha Waltz’s acclaimed production of Dido & Aeneas.

Moulds has appeared in Russia numerous times at the Bolshoi Theatre including the Russian premiere of Rodelinda and also with the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra Moscow. Most recently he joined the Russian State Chamber Orchestra for a concert performance of Handel’s Ottone.

Further afield Moulds has appeared in New York for performances of Semele with the Canadian Opera Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Following a series of performances in Israel and the Sydney Festival, Sasha Waltz’s production of Handel’s Dido & Aeneas recently received performances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma under Moulds’ baton.

On the concert platform Moulds has conducted orchestras including Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concerto Köln, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Recent highlights include performances with Concentus Musicus Wien at the Internationale Barocktage Stift Melk and the Kammerakademie Potsdam. His festival appearances include performances of La clemenza di Tito with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, the Bregenz Festival and the Händel Festspiele Halle.

Moulds began his career in 1991 as a member of the music staff at English National Opera. From 1994 to 1998 he was chorus master at Glyndebourne, after which he began his international career.

Intrada is a leading Russian-based vocal ensemble of a new generation directed by Ekaterina Antonenko. Intrada enjoys performing early music in collaboration with world-renowned artists – The Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips, Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini, Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre, I Fagiolini and Robert Hollingworth, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Frieder Bernius, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Stefano Montanari, etc.

Intrada is regularly invited to perform with Moscow’s leading orchestras under renowned conductors, such as the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, Moscow Soloists under Yuri Bashmet, Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev – venues, including Moscow and St.-Petersburg Philharmonic, Mariinski Concert Hall, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Moscow International House of Music and the Moscow Kremlin. Intrada is a regular guest at the Moscow festival December Nights founded by Svyatoslav Richter at the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

Intrada performed at the Schlosskapelle Dresden in the frames of Dresdner Kunstfest 2015. Intrada appeared at the Musikfest Erzgebirge 2016 and at the Dresden Music Festival in 2017 and 2019. Following an invitation of the Deutschlandsradio Kultur the group performed at the Wartburg Castle in 2018. Intrada appeared in the first concert series of the Lausitz-Festival in 2019. In 2021 the group gave a concert at the Live From London – Christmas festival.

Intrada premiered a number of contemporary music compositions in Russia, including Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir and the Moscow premiere of David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion. In 2014 a joint concert of The Tallis Scholars and Intrada dedicated to the memory of Sir John Tavener took place at the Moscow Conservatory Great Hall featuring the second world performance of Tavener’s Requiem Fragments (solo soprano – Julia Lezhneva). The group performed world premieres of works by Klaus Lang, Alexey Sysoev, Vladimir Rannev, Ilya Demutsky, Franck Christoph Eznikian and Arman Guschan. In February 2020 VOCES8 and Intrada gave a world premiere of Ivan Moody’s Trasfiguration during their joint concert at the Anglican church in Moscow.

Young Chinese tenor Mingjie Lei started in the 2021/22 season with a staged production of Haydn’s Missa in tempori belli conducted by Lorenzo Viotti in Amsterdam. Further plans include Don Narciso in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia, Saeb Offizier in Offenbach’s Barkouff and Ernesto in Don Pasquale in Zurich. In Stuttgart he appears during the current season in Die Zauberflöte and Così fan tutte. He also participates in an extended concert tour under Jordi Savall performing Beethoven 9th symphony and Mozart’s Requiem. Also he sings 9th symphony in St. Pölten.

In October 2020 he gave his debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin as Fenton in Falstaff, in December 2019 and January 2020, he successfully performed Ernesto in new production of Don Pasquale at Zurich Opernhaus conducted by Enrique Mazzola and directed by Christof Loy. In summer 2019 he toured as Ferrando in Così fan tutte with musicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis perfoming in St. Petersburg, Vienna, Bremen and at the Lucerne Festival, where he also participated in a concert with Cecilia Bartoli. Mingjie Lei is the winner of the Song Prize and the only tenor finalist of the general competition Cardiff singer of the World 2019. 

Since the beginning of the 2018/19 season he belongs to the ensemble of Staatsoper Stuttgart, where repertoire includes Don Pasquale. Der Prinz von Homburg, Iphigénie en Tauride, Ariadne auf Naxos and Così fan tutte. With State Opera Stuttgart he guested in Cologne with Ariadne auf Naxos. 2018 he appeared as Fenton in Falstaff at Opera Colorado and Egeo in Medea in Corinto at New York’s Teatro Nuovo. In summer 2017 he guested at Salzburg Festival in the part of Jeppo Liverotto in concert performances of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia conducted by Marco Armiliato. 

Highlights of past seasons include Nemorino in L'Elisir d’Amore, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Almeric in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Dorvil in Rossini's La Scala di seta and Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Curtis Opera Theatre and the Stuttgart Opera, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the Banff Music Festival; at Manhatten School of Music he sang Leon in Corgliano’s The Ghoast of Versailles and Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Thomas Muraco's Opera Repertoire Ensemble. As Young Collector in Previn’s A Streetcar named Desire and as Jupiter in Händel’s Semele he guested with the Merola Opera Program of San Francisco Opera at the Schwabacher summer concerts. 

As a concert singer he performed, among others, Haydn’s Schöpfung, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium and Matthäus-Passion, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Händel’s Messias (at Carnegie Hall) and Semele in New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Chicago. In Chicago he was part of the concert cycle Beyond the arias and also appeared with the New York Festival of Song performing with сomposer Bright Sheng. 

Mingjie Lei has already worked with conductors such as Sir Andrew Davis, Ari Pelto, Jacques Lacombe, Cornelius Meister and Mark Shapiro. When attending the Mozart Residency of Festival Aix-en-Provence, he received the Prix des amis for the best Mozart performance. 

Mingjie Lei studied at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He took part in the Merola Program of San Francisco Opera and was a member of the Ryan Opera Centre at Lyric Opera of Chicago. In summer 2016 he participated in the Young Singers Program of Salzburg festival, where he featured in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and in concerts with Salzburg Camerata and the Mozarteum orchestra.

Lydia Teuscher was born in Freiburg, Germany and studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama and at the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim. 

Highlights in her 2021/22 season include Caliste in staged performances of Telemann’s Pastorelle en Musique in the Markgräfliches Opernhaus Bayreuth with Ensemble 1700/Dorothee Oberlinger, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale/Richard Egarr and his Johannes-Passion with Les Violons du Roy/Bernard Labadie and Matthäus-Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra/Jan Willem de Vriend, Mozart and Mendelssohn concert arias with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Giovanni Antonini and Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya/Kazushi Ono.

2020/21 season highlights included Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Northern Sinfonia/Dinis Sousa, Bach’s Matthäus Passion with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra/Aapo Häkkinen and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya/Jan Willem de Vried. 

In opera, Lydia has sung Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Bolshoi, Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin; Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Glyndebourne Festival, Dresdner Semperoper, Staatstheater Karlsruhe, at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan; Ännchen (Der Freischütz) for the Opernhaus Zurich; Hero (Béatrice et Bénédict) at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan; Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for the Bolshoi and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) for the Glyndebourne Festival, Dresdner Semperoper and Saito Kinen Festival. She collaborates regularly with conductors such as René Jacobs, Jonathan Cohen, Emmanuelle Haïm, Sir Roger Norrington, Helmuth Rilling, Markus Stenz and Bernard Labadie. 

Previous highlights have included Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Ensemble of the Bayerische Staatsoper, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Sylvain Cambreling, Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestre National de Lille and Jan Willem de Vriend, Eurydice in Gluck’s Orfeo with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Laurence Cummings, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie/Guillermo García Calvo and Mozart’s Requiem in the Wiener Konzerthaus with the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich/Heinz Ferlesch.

Buenos Aires native Nahuel Di Pierro studied at Artistic Institute of the Teatro Colón. He is a former member of the Paris Opera Studio and the ‘Young Singer Project’ from the Salzburg Festival. 

An accomplished Mozartian, he has performed roles such as Masetto, Leporello (Don Giovanni), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Achior (La Betulia Liberata), La Voce (Idomeneo), Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Guglielmo (Cosí fan tutte) and Osmin (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) in houses such as Opera de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Salzburg, Zürich Opernhaus, Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh Festival, Buenos Aires, London, Valencia, Nancy, Luxemburg, Tel-Aviv, Dessau and Santiago. 

Other operatic repertoire includes Le Gouverneur (Le Comte Ory) and Lord Sidney (Il Viaggio a Reims), Assur (Semiramide), Selim (Il Turco in Italia), Walter and Melchthal (Guillaume Tell), Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Haly and Mustafà (L’Italiana in Algeri), Lorenzo (I Capuleti ed i Montecchi), Alessio (La Sonnambula), Léandre (L’Amour des Trois Oranges), The Cold Genius (King Arthur), Créon (Médée), Augure and Plutone in Rossi’s L’Orfeo, Ismenor, Teucer (Dardanus), Ferrando (Il Trovatore) and Colline (La bohème). 

Nahuel regularly performs with orchestras such as with the Orchestre national de France, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, the Orchestre de Paris in repertoire such as Messiah, Bach’s St. John Passion, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Mass in C, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Requiem, Berlioz’s L'Enfance du Christ, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Schubert’s Mass in E-flat major.

Recent and upcoming engagements include Selim at Glyndebourne and Opernhaus Zurich, his house debut at the Bolshoi as Leporello, Citheron (Platée) at the Opéra de Paris, Le Gouverneur in Monte Carlo, Claudio (Agrippina) in Drottningholm, Mozart’s Requiem in Valencia, Méphistophélès (La Damnation de Faust) with the Orchestre national de France and Wiener Symphoniker, Osmin for Opernhaus Zurich and the Grand-Theatre de Geneve, Assur Semiramide for the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Cadmus / Somnus (Semele), Selim for Opernhaus Zürich and Ercole (Ercole Amante) at the Opera Comique.

Svetlana Moskalenko was born in 1986 in Georgievsk. She graduated from the Stavropol Musical College in 2006 and from the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in 2012. The singer appears as a guest soloist with the Geneva Opera Theatre, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Malmö Opera, and Bolshoi Theatre. She has toured to Kazakhstan, Turkey, Japan, as well as to China with the Komische Oper Berlin. She has cooperated with Valery Gergiev, Peter Feranec, Fabio Mastrangelo, Mikhail Tatarnikov, Vasily Petrenko, Dmitri Jurowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Robert Trevino, Anton Lubchenko, Gergely Madaras, Axel Kober, Tugan Sokhiev, and other renowned conductors. She joined the Mikhailovsky Opera in 2011. She participated in the concert performances of Bizet’s Carmen (Frasquita) under the baton of Vasily Petrenko, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (madrigal), Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (Norina) under the baton of Mikhail Tatarnikov. Here she also performed Marfa in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Tsar’s Bride (production by Andrey Moguchy) and Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème (productions by Arnaud Bernard and Robert Carsen). Nowadays, at the Mikhailovsky Theatre she performs leading soprano parts in the operas by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, Antonín Dvořák, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Boris Asafiev. She also performs vocal parts in the ballets Prelude and Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness by Nacho Duato.

Her recent engagements include Königin der Nacht (Der Zauberflöte) at Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck, Volksoper Wien, Opéra national de Lorraine, Opéra national du Rhin, Komische Oper Berlin and Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor) at Theater Basel, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Opera Montreal, Lakmè at Royal Opera House Muscat and Malmö Opera, Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Rheims) at the Bolshoi Theatre. 

Among her numerous prizes of vocal competitions are the 2nd prize at International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015 (Russia), 1st prize at International vocal Competition Opera without Borders (2015, Russia), 2nd prize at International vocal Competition named after by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov (2015, Russia), 2nd Prize at the International Vocal competition Le Grand Prix de L’Opera (2014, Romania).

Scottish soprano Eleanor Dennis is a graduate of the Royal College of Music’s International Opera School and a former Harewood Artist at the English National Opera.

In 2021 Eleanor makes her debut for the Grange Festival as Helena in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and returns to the Buxton Festival as Miranda in a new production of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master.

Her recent engagements have included Contessa Le nozze di Figaro for Scottish Opera and the English National Opera; Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for Opera Holland Park; Miss Jessel The Turn of the Screw for Opera North; Helena at the Aldeburgh Festival and for the English National Opera; Micaëla Carmen for the English National Opera; Cominio in Caldara’s Lucio Papirio Dittatore for the Buxton Festival and Ginevra Ariodante for the Salzburger Landestheater.

On the concert platform, her engagements include Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem (CBSO/Andrew Manze); Britten’s A Spring Symphony (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/Cornelius Meister & BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ilan Volkov); Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Three Choirs Festival); Haydn’s Harmoniemesse (Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir András Schiff); Elgar’s Une Voix dans le Désert (CBSO/Andris Nelsons); Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins) and Beethoven’s Egmont (BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena), Missa Solemnis (Three Choirs Festival & RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland/Macelaru), Christus am Ölberge (Bamberger Symphoniker/Rolf Beck) and Symphony No. 9 (Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España/David Afkham).

Cecelia Hall has appeared since 2014 in leading roles on many of the world’s finest stages, including The Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Philadelphia, Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper and Oper Frankfurt, where she is currently a member of the ensemble. 

Cecelia began her 2021/22 season debuting Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in a new production at Opera Omaha. Returning to Oper Frankfurt, she sings Mercèdes (Carmen), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), and Percy Shelley (The People out There), a world premiere by Hauke Berheide.

As was true across our industry, the period of 2020-2021 was marked by many cancellations for Cecelia. Happily, Oper Frankfurt still saw her debut the title role of Handel’s Xerxes, and reprise Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro). Further performances included Mozart’s Requiem and a Love Songs Livestream recital with Samuel Levine and Anne Larlee. 

Previous seasons in Frankfurt have included several notable debuts for Cecelia: Idamante (Idomeneo), Irene in a new production of Tamerlano, Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust), and Fulvia in Gluck’s Ezio. Frankfurt audiences have also seen her as Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), and Dorabella. Other European highlights include Cherubino at the Bayerische Staatsoper with Ivor Bolton and Zaida (Il Turco in Italia) in Aix-en-Provence, led by Christoper Alden and Marc Minkowski. Cecelia made her Russian debut singing Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos) with Vladimir Jurowski and the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra. 

Highlights of Cecelia’s work in North America include Don Ramiro (La Finta Giardiniera) at the Santa Fe Opera, Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) at the Canadian Opera Company, Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito) with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Page (Salome) with the Philadelphia Orchestra, cond. Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Cecelia has sung multiple times with Opera Philadelphia: as Ruby Thewes in the east coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, and as Clorinda in Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Cecelia sang Wellgunde and Rossweisse in Seattle Opera’s Ring des Nibelungen recorded and released commercially. 

An alumna of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, Cecelia received much critical acclaim for her turn there as Annio (La Clemenza di Tito) with Sir Andrew Davis and David McVicar and for her performance in the title-role of Handel’s Teseo at Chicago Opera Theater. As an alumna of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has appeared at the Met as Javotte (Manon) and as Second Priestess (Iphigénie en Tauride). 

A noted recitalist, Cecelia has appeared several times at Carnegie Hall. In Frankfurt, she gave a much-lauded Liederabend with Hilko Dumno. She sang in recital with Sir Thomas Allen and Malcolm Martineau at Wigmore Hall. Cecelia made her Mostly Mozart debut as the mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem with Maestro Louis Langrée and appeared with the Bay Atlantic Symphony singing Les Nuits d’Eté. 

An alumna of The Juilliard School and DePaul University, Cecelia is a recipient of a 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, a 2012 Brian Dickie Outstanding Young Singer Award, the 2013 Lynne Harvey Foundation Scholarship from the Musician’s Club of Women, and Third Prize from the 2013 Gerda Lissner Foundation.

Born in St. Petersburg, Maria Gortsevskaya graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. She is recipient of the First prize at the Verviers International Competition, Belgium (1995). Since 2008 Maria Gortsevskaya lives in Berlin, Germany. She made her professional stage debut as Fyodor in Boris Godunov at Mariinsky theatre in the age of 19. She further appeared as Olga (Eugene Onegin), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Cenerentola (Cenerentola), Isabella (L’Ítaliana in Algeri), Siebel (Faust), and Mercedes (Carmen), among others and took part in the Andrei Konchalovsky’s production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace.

Maria Gortsevskaya performed with Mariinsky theatre in Royal Opera House London, Metropolitan Opera NY, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and the USA. Among her most acclaimed portrayals are Dorabella and Rosina. Rosina she has performed in the Dario Fo’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia conducted by Marco Boemi on tour in the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain. 

Maria Gortsevskaya has performed Melibea in Il Viaggio a Reims (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro), Fyodor (La Monnaie, Brussels), Baba The Turk in Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress (Festival Mozart, La Coruña and Bologna, Calixto Bieto, director), Clarina in cambiale di matrimonio by Rossini and Giustizia in Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots by Mozart (both at Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro), Mother Superior in The Fiery Angel by Prokofiev (La Monnaie, Brussels), Rinaldo in Admira e Rinaldo by Sarti (Hermitage theatre, St.Petersburg) and many other roles. 

In 2008 she performed Olga in Eugene Onegin (Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, UK). In 2008/09 she performed Der Hass in Armida by Gluck (Komische Oper Berlin), and Blanche in The Gambler by Prokofiev (Opera de Lyon). In 2009/10 she performed Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Cologne), Wellgunde in Das Rheingold (La Scala, Milano), Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte (Staatsoper unter den Linden). Between 2011 and 2013 engagements included Requiem and Coronation Mass by Mozart (The Netherlands), Alto Rhapsody by Brahms (Bolshoi Theater, Moscow), Wellgunde in Das Rheingold (Staatsoper Unter den Linden) and Die Götterdämmerung (La Scala, Milano and Staatsoper unter den Linden), as well as Wellgunde at BBC Proms (London) with Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim. 

In 2014 Maria Gortsevskaya made her debut at Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona) in The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya by Rimsky-Korsakov. 2015 marked her debut with Staatskapelle Dresden and Vladimir Jurowski at Schostakowitsch Tage Gohrisch, where she performed Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva by Shostakovich. The same year Maria Gortsevskaya got to perform at Luigi Nono Festival at Staatsope Berlin, singing a contralto solo part in the Guai ai Gelidi Mostri oratorio with Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt). In 2018 she took part in performing El Nino oratorio by John Adams, with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Vladimir Jurowski. She also participated in New Year’s concerts conducted by Jurowski (Beethoven, Symphony No.9, alto solo). 

Her extended concert repertoire includes works by Shostakovich, Brahms, Pergolesi, Rossini, Haydn, Mozart, Händel, Vivaldi, Sarti, Stravinsky, Zemlinsky, Nono, and many contemporary composers. She gave solo recitals and concerts at the Théâtre du Châtelet, participated in Verdi Gala at Concertgebouw, and White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. 

Maria Gortsevskaya participated in many audioand video recordings such as War and Peace and Fiery Angel for Philips Classics, and Cosi fan tutte for Euro Radio with the Latvian National Opera and La Cambiale di matrimonio for Dynamic (Rossini Opera Festival). Upon an invitation of film director Tony Palmer, she participated in the shooting of The Search for the Grail with Placido Domingo in the main part. She took part in video recording of Der Ring des Nibelungen with Teatro alla Scala and Staatsoper Berlin (conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Guy Cassiers as a stage director). In January 2020, just days before the pandemic, Maria Gortsevskaya was happy to make her debut with the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra in Moscow, singing a role in Eugene Onegin.

Born in 1989 in the town of Kovrov, Russia. In 2014 he graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory. At the Opera studio of the Conservatory he performed Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin and Colline in La Boheme.

In 2011 he won the third prize in the Bella Voce competition. In 2011–2012 he was a soloist of Sretensky Monastery Choir. With the choir he has toured in Russia, the USA and China.

In 2013 he became an artist of the Young Artists Program of the Bolshoi Theatre. In the same year he made his Bolshoi Theatre debut as Flemish deputy (Don Carlo). In 2014 he sang Antonio in a concert performance of Le Nozze di Figaro (Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra, conductor William Lacey). In 2015 he took part in the Bolshoi Theatre tour to Norway (The Northern Lights Festival, concert performance of Le Nozze di Figaro, conductor William Lacey).

Samuel Levine was born in Boston and graduated from The Juilliard School. He regularly performs new and contemporary works to great acclaim, while collaborating with cutting-edge directors and presenters to explore new ways of performing the standard repertory. His performances are distinguished by his “full-bodied” and “bright-voiced” tenor (The Wall Street Journal), deeply sensitive musicianship, and winning charisma on stage.

Engagements of the season 2021/22 include Der Schneider (Königskinder new production) and 1er Brabantischer Edler (Lohengrin new production) at the Tiroler Festspiel Erl, Arv (Carl Nielsen’s Maskerade new production) at the Oper Frankfurt, Das Lied Von Der Erde at Live Music Now Frankfurt, Edrisi (Krol Roger) at the Oper Frankfurt, to name a few. Highlights of the Covid-shortened 2019/20 season included the world premiere of Scott Davenport Richards’ Blind Injustice at Cincinnati Opera; Walther von der Vogelweide in Tannhäuser at the Stadtheater Klagenfurt in a new production; Third Player in the German premiere of Brett Dean’s Hamlet at Oper Köln. 2018/19 season highlights included Andy in Olga Neuwirth's Lost Highway at Oper Frankfurt; Kunz Vogelgesang in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Nationaltheater Mannheim; the leading roles of L'Oncle and L'Étranger in Aribert Reimann's L'Invisible at the Staatshteater Braunschweig, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca, all new productions. 

Mr. Levine is a 2017 graduate of the Juilliard School, where he received the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies and the Novice Career Advancement Grant. Roles at Juilliard included Kudrjas in Katya Kabanova, 1st Armed Guard in The Magic Flute, and Le Mari in Les Mamelles de Tirésias. He also appeared with Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song. Outside engagements included a return to Boston Lyric Opera for Carmen; Mascagni’s Iris at Bard SummerScape; the world premiere of Three Way at Nashville Opera; and Testo in Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento with Cantata Profana. 

A champion of new music, Mr. Levine has originated 12 roles to date. World and North American premieres include Noah in I Have No Stories to Tell You with Gotham Chamber Opera at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Joe and Marcus in Three Way with Nashville Opera and American Opera Projects; 1st Traveler in Clemency with Boston Lyric Opera; Ravana in River of Light with Houston Grand Opera East + West; Andy in Lost Highway at the Miller Theater; and Léon in the new performing edition of The Ghosts of Versailles with Opera Theater of Saint Louis and Wexford Festival Opera. He also regularly collaborates with innovative directors to present existing works in new, daring ways: such productions have included RB Schlather’s Alcina in a lower Manhattan gallery space and Ariodante workshop at National Sawdust; the title role of Frankenstein with Matthew Ozawa in an abandoned factory with West Edge Opera; Carmen set in sacred spaces of Savannah and coastal Maine with Edwin Cahill. 

Mr Levine holds Bachelor's Degrees from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Oberlin College, a Master's Degree from Yale University School of Music, and is an alumnus of the young artist training programs of The Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and, under the direction of Maestro James Levine, the Tanglewood Music Festival. The Boston native now lives in Frankfurt, Germany, with his wife, the radiant American mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall. Awards have included the 2017 Gerda Lissner Foundation Grant Award, 2013 Liederkranz Competition, 2011 Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, 2010 Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Southeast Region.