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Maryam Wocial is a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music where she is the Poppy Holden scholar supported by the Cuthbert Smith scholarship. She is generously supported by the H R Taylor Trust, the Munster Trust, and is a Josephine Baker Trust artist. In 2024, she made her debut as a soloist with professional ensembles including The Mozartists, Instruments of Time and Truth, and she is the inaugural vocalist on The English Concert’s early careers fellowship programme for 2024–25. At the Britten Theatre, Maryam has performed the role of Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Ilia (Idomeneo), and Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea) in opera scenes. Last summer, she debuted the role of Anastasia Romanov in the world premiere of Jasmine Morris’s Church on the Blood, a contemporary opera produced in collaboration with Tête à Tête Opera. As a concert soloist, Maryam has performed at prestigious venues including the Sheldonian Theatre, the Cadogan Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall. She recently won the 2nd Prize at the International Handel Singing Competition in London.
Katrīna Paula Felsberga made her debut as Adina (L’elisir d’amore) at the Latvian National Opera in the 2024–25 season. She has also performed Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and was named ‘Young Artist of the Year’ at the 2024 Latvian Great Music Awards. A dedicated recitalist, she has appeared at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin with Graham Johnson and Malcolm Martineau, and participated in the Heidelberger Frühling Liedfestival and the Kissinger Sommer’s LiederWerkstatt. Highlights of 2024 include a solo recital at Rachmaninoff’s Villa Senar in Lucerne and a performance at the Konzerthaus Berlin with organist Iveta Apkalna. She is also active in contemporary music and has worked with Ensemble Modern and Ensemble l’Itinéraire.
Tamara Bounazou is a French-Algerian lyric soprano equally at home on the operatic and theatrical stage. She has performed Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress) under Barbara Hannigan and Eurydice (Orphée aux Enfers) under Marc Minkowski. At the Opéra National de Paris, she has sung Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) and L’Amour (Platée), and appeared as Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Passionate about poetry and chamber music, she won first prize at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition in 2019 with pianist Anna Giorgi. A frequent recitalist, she has appeared at venues including Wigmore Hall in London. Upcoming engagements include the title role in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, under the baton of Louis Langrée and directed by Wajdi Mouawad.
Daria Brusova, a native of Salsk in the Rostov region of Russia, obtained her degree from the Academic Musical College at the Moscow State Conservatory, specializing in vocal performance. Currently in her fifth year of study at the Moscow State Conservatory, Daria is also a member of the prestigious Bolshoi Theater Young Opera Program since 2022. In October 2023, she achieved the 2nd Prize at the esteemed 56th International Vocal Competition’s-Hertogenbosch (IVC) in the LiedDuo category. Possessing a lyrical coloratura soprano voice, Daria’s repertoire includes a variety of classical, chamber, and baroque works. She has already portrayed roles such as the Queen of the Night, as well as having Gilda and Musetta in her repertoire.
German soprano Felicitas Wrede started her studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy with Brigitte Wohlfarth. Since 2022 she has studied with Amanda Roocroft at the Royal College of Music in London as an ABRSM scholar. She won the Second Prize as well as the Audience Prize at the Sollima International Competition 2016 in Enna (Sicily). In concert, she has performed at the Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche, Gewandhaus and at the Händelfestspiele Göttingen. On the opera stage she has appeared as Pamina in The Magic Flute, as Clomiri in Imeneo, as the title role in Die Kluge and as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel.
Luna Seongeun Park graduated as the top master’s student at the Mannes School of Music and is now continuing her studies at The Juilliard School. She has won numerous awards in international competitions, including Grand Prize at the Career Bridges Grant Awards, First place at the Korea & China International Vocal Competition, Second place at the LISMA International Competition, and recognition in the Opera Index and the Annapolis Opera Competition. Recently, she was a semifinalist in the Belvedere Singing Competition. She has performed in Don Giovanni, L’enfant et les sortilèges, and Dark Sisters and has the roles of Zerlina, Gilda, Nannetta, and Adina in her repertoire. Luna has appeared in major venues including Carnegie Hall and the Seoul Arts Center.
Soprano Meigui Zhang was named Laureate of the 2019 Prix Yves Paternot (the Verbier Festival Academy’s highest honour), was a finalist in the 2019 Queen Sonja International Music Competition, and took second place at the 2020 Opera Index Competition. She also won the Audience Prize at the 2020 Glyndebourne Opera Cup. While in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Zhang made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Bloody Child in Macbeth, followed by Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro. While attending the Merola Opera Program, she performed as Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, and at both the Chautauqua Institute and at the Verbier Festival, she was seen as Pamina in The Magic Flute. Meigui Zhang earned her master’s degree from the Mannes School of Music, where she was a recipient of the George and Elizabeth Award, and completed her bachelor’s degree at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
Having graduated from the CNSMD (National Conservatory of Music and Dance) of Paris with a specialization in harp, chamber music, and interpretation of early vocal music, Sandrine Piau’s talent was first recognized by William Christie, who introduced her to the public. Today, she boasts an extensive repertoire and holds an exceptional position in the world of opera and song. She has appeared on stages of prestigious venues worldwide, including the Paris Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Covent Garden in London, the Théâtres des Champs-Élysées, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and the Monte-Carlo Opera. Additionally, she has given memorable performances in renowned cities such as New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, Munich, Zurich, Salzburg, and Hamburg, notably for the inauguration of the Elbphilharmonie. She has collaborated with esteemed conductors and has given recitals alongside esteemed pianists including Alexandre Tharaud, Christian Ivaldi, Jos van Immerseel, Susan Manoff, Eric le Sage, and David Kadouch. Furthermore, she has collaborated with ensembles including Ensemble Resonanz, Ensemble Contraste, Ensemble Pulcinella, and Quatuor Psophos, among others. Piau has dedicated several albums to the works of Haendel and Mozart, and has released numerous recital albums, all of which have received esteemed recognition including Editor’s Choice from Gramophone, Diapason d’Or, Choc Classica, and the Golden Key ResMusica. At present, she exclusively records for the Alpha Classics label. In 2021, she released the album Voyage Intime, which marked the beginning of an exciting collaboration with pianist David Kadouch. Looking ahead to 2023/24, her projects include live performances and a recording of Lully’s opera Atys, a performance of Così fan tutte in Munich, and the world premiere of Marc André Dalbavie’s opera La mélancolie de la résistance at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. In recognition of her contributions and accomplishments, Sandrine Piau was appointed as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2006, and was honoured as Lyric Artist of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique in 2009.
Golda was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1983. Her mother is a retired nurse, and her father is a retired university professor of Mathematics. Golda studied journalism at Rhodes University before switching to singing at the University of Cape Town, and then at the Juilliard School in New York. In 2011, Golda won a place at the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, after which her career developed rapidly.
From her base in Germany she has conquered the world’s opera houses and concert halls, from the Vienna State Opera to the Salzburg Festival; and from La Scala, Milan, to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, to name but four.
In 2020 Golda appeared at the Last Night of the Proms in London, and the following year the recording of Porgy and Bess, in which she portrayed the role of Clara, received a Grammy Award. In 2022 Golda was described as a “gifted soprano” when she received the Bavarian government’s Special Prize for Culture. She was also named Artiste Étoile by the Lucerne Festival the same year.
Her debut album with the pianist Jonathan Ware was likewise released in 2022: This Be Her Verse is devoted to female composers who until then had been ignored by music historians. Reviewers were enthusiastic: the Munich Merkur described it as “one of the most powerful lieder albums of the recent past”, while the Guardian welcomed it as a further demonstration of Golda’s versatility and musical intelligence. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung spoke of the soprano “singing with so much dramatic talent, such magnificent use of tone, colours, and such a feeling for swing that even Schubert and Schumann would have swallowed hard.” This album demonstrates Golda’s great love of lieder and concert singing, a world in which she is just as much at home as she is in the realm of opera.
Soprano Erin O’Rourke is a second year Master’ degree student in the Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School, where she studies with Amy Burton. Erin recently won the Laffont Metropolitan Opera Competition New York District and is preparing for her roles as Nella in Gianni Schicchi and Philidel in King Arthur at Juilliard. In 2022, she made her Raylynmor Opera debut as Nannetta in Falstaff, joined New Amsterdam Opera covering the lead role of Anna in Boïeldieu’s La dame blanche, and performed the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with the Chicago Summer Opera Company. She also performed concert works with Juilliard’s Focus Festival, which The New York Times dubbed “Broadway Meets the Avant-garde”, and made her Lincoln Center debut in the CPE Bach Concert Festival at the Bruno Walter Theater. Erin has been enjoys singing both early music and contemporary styles of music and is a champion of music by female composers and composers of colour.