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Mark Kurmanbayev gained his experience in his home of Serbia. He has already worked with conductors Dmitry Korchak, Liubof Orfenova and Kirill Petrenko and studied with Grace Bumbry, Barbara Frittoli, Freddie de Tommaso and Sergei Leiferkus. In December 2021, Mark debuted in Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortileges at the World Opera Workshop. This year he made his debut as Narumov in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame at Baden-Baden, working with Maestro Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker and last season he began working under the guidance of the world-renowned bass Alexey Tanovitski, and will appear in the world premiere of Animal Farm at Dutch National Opera. This summer he was part of the Summer Residency at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, performing under the baton of Thomas Hengelbrock. This season, he will enter the Dutch National Opera Studio.
Originaire de la ville rose, c’est après des études en sciences politiques que Matthieu Toulouse se consacre au chant lyrique et se forme à la Schola Cantorum de Paris, où il obtient son diplôme de concert à l’unanimité avec les félicitations du jury. Il suit depuis les enseignements de Didier Laclau-Barrère.
Il fait ses premiers pas sur scène avec les rôles du Sprecher et du 2ème homme d’arme dans la Flûte Enchantée au Festival de Saint-Céré, à l’Opéra de Clermont-Ferrand et à l’Opéra de Massy. Depuis, il s’est produit à l’Opéra de Reims, au théâtre du Châtelet, à l’opéra de Versailles, au théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, à l’opéra de Ho Chi Minh, à l’Opéra de Massy, de Clermont-Ferrand ainsi qu’au festival de Saint Céré, à l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo… dans les rôles de Leporello/Don Giovanni, Ariodate/Sersé de Haendel, le Gouverneur/Le Comte Ory, Pandolfe/Cendrillon de Massenet, Alidoro/La Cenerentola, le 1er artisan/Wozzeck (mise en scène Michel Fau), Ame/Hulda de César Franck avec le Palazetto Bru Zane (Philharmonies de Liège et Namur, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), assure la doublure de Rocco/Fidelio (Opéra de Nice) ; Le Pilote/Tristan und Isolde.
Remarqué pour son tempérament, la profondeur de ses graves et sa diction, il est aussi régulièrement sollicité pour les messes de Requiem de Mozart, de Fauré, ou encore de Duruflé. Il a également interprété la basse solo dans le Messie de Haendel, la Messa di Gloria de Puccini, la Création de Haydn.
Parmi ses projets : il reprend le 1er artisan/Wozzeck au Festival d’Aix-en-Provence et Alcandro/L’Olimpiade en tournée (dont au Festival International d’Opéra Baroque de Beaune) avec L’Ensemble Matheus de Jean-Christophe Spinosi ; se produit à Bordeaux avec l’ensemble baroque Orfeo, etc.
Canadian-Armenian bass-baritone Vartan Gabrielian is a graduate of the Canadian Opera Company’s ensemble programme and the Santa Fe Apprentice programme. The 2023/24 season sees numerous roles and debuts for him, including Dottore Grenvil (La Traviata) at the Paris Opera, Basilio (The Barber of Seville), Frère Laurent (Romeo and Juliet), and Capitán (Florencia en el Amazonas) at Opera San Jose, as well as Fasolt (Das Rheingold) with the Edmonton Opera. A sought-after concert performer, Vartan will also be performing Handel’s Messiah with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In 2022/23 he appeared as Masetto and Commendatore (Don Giovanni) at the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Nourabad (Les pêcheurs de perles) at Vancouver Opera, and returned to the Canadian Opera Company to perform Dottore (Macbeth) and cover Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Banquo (Macbeth), and Angelotti (Tosca). Vartan is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, having earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree after studies with Marlena Malas and Armen Boyajian.
Bass Yannick Spanier studied at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media and at the Conservatoire de Toulouse. The young singer has already been cast in many important roles, including Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Arkel (Pelléas et Melisande) and Dr Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia). From the 2017 / 18 season, Spanier was part of the Junge Oper Hannover and, in 2019 / 20, he joined the ensemble of the Hannover Staatsoper, where he just finished a run as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutti. He is an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy’s Atelier Lyrique (2018).
A recent graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and recipient of a number of major awards, British bass William Thomas is fast making a name for himself as one of today’s most promising young singers. As a Jerwood Young Artist he sang the role of Nicholas in the British premiere of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa at the Glyndebourne Festival, he has sung Shepherd Pelléas et Mélisande for Garsington Opera and he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Snug in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other recent engagements have included Zweiter Priester/Zweiter Geharnischter Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne and Colline La bohème at Alexandra Palace for the English National Opera.
Brought up in Derbyshire, Bass-Baritone Edward Jowle is a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music, studying with Russell Smythe and Gary Matthewman. A 2019/20 Samling Scholar, he is supported by the Drake Calleja Trust, the Josephine Baker Trust and the recipient of the RCM Rose Williams Scholarship. Recent Operatic work includes: Guglielmo (Cosí fan tutte/Devon Opera); Elviro (Serse/Accademia Europea Dell’Opera); Papageno (Die Zauberflöte/Westminster Opera); Lord Dunmow (A Dinner Engagement), Snug (A Midsummer Nights Dream/RCM Opera Studio); Falke (Die Fledermaus/Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts); Gendarme (Les Mamelles de Tirésias/Euphonia Studio); Alidoro (La Cenerentola/Bedford Park Festival) Cecil (Maria Stuarda) for Magnetic Opera/Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and Adonis (Venus and Adonis/Brighton Early Music Festival). Recent concert highlights include Handel Messiah (Nevill Holt); Bach B Minor Mass (Lloyds Choir); Berlioz L’enfance du Christ (Scherzo Ensemble); Finzi Let us Garlands bring (East London Symphony Orchestra); Oli Tarney St Mark Passion (Endellion Festival) Mozart Requiem (Orchestre Symphonique de Canet et Rousillon, France) and Elgar The Apostles (London Philharmonic Orchestra). Acting work includes Lomov/Narrator/Smirnov (Chekhov Tripple Bill: The Proposal/On the Evils of Tobacco/The Bear) for Euphonia Studio. Edward has worked with conductors including Martyn Brabbins, Michael Rosewell, Jonathan Peter Kenny and Natalie Murray Beale, as well as directors including Iqbal Khan, James Conway, Liam Steel, Bill Bankes-Jones and Rodula Gaitanou. He has participated in masterclasses with Gerald Finley, Dennis O’Neill, Sir Thomas Allen and most recently with Thomas Quasthoff at the Wigmore Hall. Forthcoming projects include Masetto (Don Giovanni) for Nevill Holt,. Gendarme (Les mamelles de Tirésias) for British Youth Opera and a recital for the Oxford Lieder Festival with Ana Manastireanu. He will also appear at this year’s Verbier Festival as part of the Atelier Lyrique Young Artist Programme, playing Colline in the festival production of La Bohème. Edward is delighted to be continuing his studies at the RCM in September as a a member of the Opera Studio.
Iason Marmaras is a keyboard player, singer, and the founder and leader of the ensemble os orphicum. He was awarded a Master’s degree on Harpsichord (2012) under Fabio Bonizzoni and Ton Koopman; and a Bachelor’s degree in Early Music Singing (2011) under Barbara Pearson, Kees Jan de Koning, Jill Feldman, Michael Chance and Peter Kooij; at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag, the Netherlands.
Iason has performed as a continuo player, singing soloist, ensemble- and choir-singer under such musicians as Jos van Veldhoven, Jos Vermunt, Peter van Heyghen, Charles Toet, Jan Kleinbussink, Jaap ter Linden, Peter Kooij, Harry van der Kamp and Fabio Bonizzoni. In 2009 he sang Lesbo in Handel’s Agrippina under Hernán Schvartzman, and in 2011 he sang Amor in Monteverdi’s l’Incoronazione di Poppea under Markellos Chrysikopoulos. He is also an increasingly sought-after vocal coach, and the regular accompanist of soprano Stefanie True and counter-tenor Jan Kullmann.
Even before his formal acquaintance with the harpsichord, he was an avid continuo-player and improviser on the piano, and he still regards continuo-playing and improvisation as vital though largely neglected parts of musicianship today. His universal love for music has led to his avid (and increasing) interest in ensemble-leading and direction, and he has organised and directed numerous concerts during the years of his study, also following instruction in conducting with Hernán Schvartzman and Marine Fribourg.
Born in Baku in 1995, Maharram Huseynov began studying singing in the class of Svetlana Mirzoeva at the Rostropovich Music School in Baku. At the Osimo Academy of Lyric Art she studied with Lella Cuberli and Raina Kabaivanska. In 2016, he attended the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro with Alberto Zedda. He perfected his studies at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala with Renato Bruson. He also participates in master classes with Galina Vishnevskaya, Tom Kraus, Bernadette Manca di Nassa, Ildar Abdrazakov and Juan Diego Florez.
His early stage debuts include the roles of Morales in Carmen; Rector in Mese Mariano by Giordano at the Teatro La Nuova Fenice, Don Alvaro in Il Viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro; Demon in San Guglielmo Duca d’Aquitania by Pergolesi under the direction of Christophe Rousset at the Pergolesi Spontini Festival in Jesi; and at the Rieti Festival as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia under the direction of Fabio Biondi.
In the next seasons, he will act as Dandini in La Cenerentola at the Rossini Theater, in Don Giovanni for the OperaCamion project of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. In the role of Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, he toured with the Teatro San Carlo from Naples to Dubai.
On the stage of the Teatro alla Scala, he participated in the Accademia production of Ali Baba E I 40 Ladroni in the role of Ours-Kan, directed by Paolo Carignani and staged by Liliana Cavani. As Dulcamara in l’Elisir d’Amore for young people, later re-released at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Under the direction of Valery Gergiev, he debuted as the Lutheran Pastor in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina. Alongside Ambrogio Maestri, he played the role of Poet in Salieri’s Prima La Musica Poi Le Parole and Guccio in Gianni Schicchi, directed by Woody Allen. Like Monterone in Rigoletto, he sings alongside Leo Nucci, under the baton of Daniel Oren.
His latest engagements include Colline in la Bohème at the Modena and Piacenza theatres, and his debut at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg, where he appeared in several operas, including the role of Figaro in le Nozze di Figaro; Colline in la Bohème; Angelotti in Tosca; Conte Monterone in Rigoletto; Jake Wallace in the Girl from the West; Nilakantha in Lakme ; Don Giovanni as Leporello and Masetto, Dulcamara in l’Elisir d’Amore, Alidoro in La Cenerentola and Mandarino in Turandot.
Maharram is the winner of prestigious international competitions, such as the Odessa Sozvezdie Competition (1st Prize, 2008), the Muslim Magomaev Moscow Competition (2nd Prize, 2016), and the Sergei Leiferkus Moscow Competition (finalist, 2019). As a soloist, he has participated in the Mstislav Rostropovic Festival, the Gabala Festival, the Follonica Festival and the Uzeir Hajibeyli Festival. In 2020, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan awarded him the Presidential Award.
[ahb-drah-ZAH-koff] has established himself as one of opera’s most sought-after basses. Since making his La Scala debut in 2001 at 25, the Russian singer has become a mainstay at leading houses worldwide, including New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. His powerful yet refined voice coupled with his compelling stage presence have prompted critics to hail him as a “sensational bass…who has just about everything – imposing sound, beautiful legato, oodles of finesse” (The Independent). Also an active concert artist, he has performed at London’s BBC Proms and at New York’s Carnegie Hall, as well as with leading international orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic.
Greek bass Alexandros Stavrakakis is the First Prize Winner of the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition, and is a member of the ensemble at Semperoper Dresden, where his roles this season include Chelio (The Love for Three Oranges) Filippo II (Don Carlo) and Colline (La bohème) amongst others.
In seasons past, Alexandros marked his house debuts at Metropolitan Opera, New York, Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Opéra national de Bordeaux, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Schloss Elmau, Verbier Festival and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as well as Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall Boston.
This season he will make important house and role debuts with Hermann (Tannhäuser) at Houston Grand Opera and Vodnik (Rusalka) at Teatro del Liceu Barcelona. On the concert scene, he will sing a new commission by Fazil Say and Mozart’s Requiem with the Luzerner Symphonieorchester. Future seasons will see his return to the Metropolitan Opera New York, as well as house debuts at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, L’Opéra de Montreal, L’Opéra national de Paris and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.
As a soloist, Alexandros has appeared in opera productions of the Greek National Opera and the Megaron Athens Concert Hall, worked in numerous radio broadcasts and recitals in Athens, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Syros (Apollo Theater), Corfu, Kefalonia, Delphi, Dresden, Berlin, Baden-Baden, Kaiserslautern, Landau, Bad Elster, Istanbul, collaborating with orchestras such as the Greek Symphony Orchestra of ERT, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Deutsche Philarmonie Orchester SWR, Staatskapelle Dresden,
He collaborated with conductors including Christian Thielemann, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ivan Repušić, Omer Meir Wellber, John Fiore, Andris Nelsons, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Nikolaj Znaider, Michele Mariotti, Damiano Michiletto Jonathan Darlington, Daniele Rustioni, Joana Mallwitz, Marco Armiliato, Antonello Manacorda and Mark Wigglesworth. Notable stage directors include Damiano Michiletto, Christof Loy, David Mc Vicar, Katharina Thalbach, Andreas Homoki, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Grischa Asagaroff and Dmitry Bertman.
Alexandros’ recital programmes range from Schubert, Brahms, and Schumann to Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.
He began his musical education at an early age receiving piano lessons from his mother. At the age of eight, he became a member of the Children’s Choir of ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation). Two years later he joined the ”Manolis Kalomiris Children Choir” of the National Conservatory, which allowed him to participate in numerous opera productions of the Greek National Opera. In 2014, he graduated with honours and special prize and in the same year he was awarded the Maria Callas Scholarship.
In addition to his victory at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Alexandros won the 3rd Wagner International Competition in Leipzig and is a winner of the Second Prize and the Audience Prize at the prestigious Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition (Riga, 2018).