IVC – The world keeps on singing
Mozart Masterclass

28 November – 3 December 2020
’s-Hertogenbosch | Netherlands

Masters
Vesselina Kasarova, mezzo-soprano
Roberta Alexander, soprano
Thomas Oliemans, baritone

Speakers
Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano (IVC Laureate)
Manuel Brug, opera journalist (Die Welt)
Rosemary Joshua, Dutch National Opera Studio
Joan Matabosch, Teatro Real Madrid

Pianists
Hans Eijsackers
Jan-Paul Grijpink

Academy singers
8 participants

Arranger
Sylvia Maessen

Programme
28 November – 3 December 2020
Private coachings, group sessions, public master classes, speakers, forum on new opportunities for young singers, closing concert

Timetable
Saturday, 28 November 2020, 10 am – Arrival & Opening
28 November – 2 December 2020 – Masterclasses/coachings; Speakers; Forum (3 sessions per day: morning/afternoon/evening)
Thursday, 3 December 2020, 7.15 pm | 9.15 pm - Presentation Concert by participants Masterclass with string quartet South Netherlands Philharmonic and piano accompaniment
*Friday, 4 December 2020, 7 pm | 9.30 pm - Concert Eva-Maria Westbroek (soprano), string quartet South Netherlands Philharmonic (*extracurricular event)

Venue
Verkadefabriek
Address: Boschdijkstraat 45, 5211 VD ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

Age limit
The course is open to all professional singers, born on 5 December 1987 or later
Participants can not be younger than 18 years.

Repertoire
At least 5 solo arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (opera / oratorio / concert arias)
From this listing propose 1 aria to be arranged for string quartet and piano for performance during the Presentation Concert on 3 December.
Ensembles and duets to be decided. Please propose 1 duet.

Course fee
€ 500 (lunch & dinner included). The course fee is € 500 per candidate but the Rudolf H. Schmidt Fund has decided to contribute € 200 per candidate because of the COVID-19 situation. Total fee to be paid by participants: € 300
Payment after selection.

Accommodation
Board and lodging for participants at host families in ’s-Hertogenbosch

Application
Send biography/CV (including date of birth) and portrait picture with your IVC Mozart Masterclass course repertoire listing to info@ivc.nu. Along with one link to YouTube video performance of operatic repertoire by W.A. Mozart. (5 - 8 minutes length total)

Application deadline
1^st October 2020

ACADEMY PROGRAMME
Mozart Masterclass

Saturday, 28 November 2020
10:00 - 11:15h Rehearsal candidates Mozart Masterclass

11:30 - 12:30h Opening Academy

14:15 - 16:30h Public Masterclass Vesselina Kasarova
14:30 - 17:30h Coaching Roberta Alexander

19:00 - 22:00h Coaching Vesselina Kasarova
19:00 - 22:00h Coaching Thomas Oliemans

Sunday, 29 November 2020
11:00 - 12:30h Rosemary Joshua (Dutch National Opera Studio):New opportunities for young singers

14:15 - 16:30h Public Masterclass Roberta Alexander
14:30 - 17:30h Coaching Vesselina Kasarova

19:00 - 22:00h Coaching Vesselina Kasarova
19:00 - 22:00h Coaching Thomas Oliemans

Monday, 30 November 2020
11:00 - 12:30h Sarah Connoly (mezzo-soprano, IVC laureate):New opportunities for young singers (online)

14:30 - 17:30h Coaching Roberta Alexander
14:30 - 17:30h Coaching Vesselina Kasarova

19:15 - 21:30h Public Masterclass Thomas Oliemans
19:00 - 22:00h Coaching Vesselina Kasarova

Tuesday, 1 December 2020
11:00 - 12:30h Joan Matabosch (Teatro Real Madrid): New opportunities for young singers

14:15 - 16:30h Public Masterclass Vesselina Kasarova
14:30 - 17:30h Coaching Roberta Alexander

19:15 - 21:30h Public Masterclass Thomas Oliemans
19:00 - 22:00h Coaching Vesselina Kasarova

Wednesday, 2 December 2020
11:00 - 12:30h Manuel Brug (opera journalist Die Welt): New opportunities for young singers

14:15 - 16:30h Public Masterclass Roberta Alexander
14:30 - 17:30h Coaching Vesselina Kasarova

19:00 - 22:00h Rehearsal repertoire Presentation Concert (incl. stage direction)

Thursday, 3 December 2020
10:30 - 11:00h Coaching repertoire Presentation Concert (optional)

14:00 - 17:00h Dress rehearsal Presentation Concert

19:15 - 20:15h Presentation Concert I participants Mozart Masterclass
21:15 - 22.15h Presentation Concert II participants Mozart Masterclass

Vesselina Kasarova
Mezzo-soprano

Vesselina Kasarova was born in Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) and began playing the piano at the age of four. After her concert diploma she studied singing with Ressa Koleva at the Music Academy of Sofia and already as a student she performed in major roles at the National Opera there.

After completing her studies in 1989, a two-year fixed contract led her to the Zurich Opera House, where she quickly became a public favourite and was celebrated by international experts as a great discovery.

In the same year she also won first prize at the German singing competition "Neue Stimmen" in Gütersloh.

In the Mozart Year 1991 Vesselina Kasarova made her debut at the Salzburg Festival with two matinées in the Mozarteum (Betulia liberata KV 118) and as Annio in the revival of La clemenza di Tito conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Further roles at the Salzburg Festival were Tancredi, Ombra felice, Zerlina, Farnace, Sesto and Marguerite (La damnation de Faust). In the autumn of the same year Vesselina Kasarova made her highly acclaimed debut at the Vienna State Opera as Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) under Donald Runnicles.

With roles of Mozart (Cherubino, Idamante, Sesto, Dorabella) and Rossini (Rosina, Tancredi, Isabella, Angelina) as well as Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), Charlotte (Werther) and others. She has also appeared at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Zurich Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Opéra National de Paris (Bastille, Garnier), Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Vienna State Opera, in Amsterdam as well as at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

She worked with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Colin Davis, Pinchas Steinberg, Donald Runnicles, Seji Ozawa, Semyon Bychkov, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Marcello Viotti, Alberto Zedda, Franz Welser-Möst, Sir Roger Norrington, Eve Queler, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Ivor Bolton and Friedrich Haider.

Recitals and concerts have taken Vesselina Kasarova to Munich, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Vienna, Dresden, La Scala Milan, Wigmore Hall London, Carnegie Hall New York, Schubertiade Feldkirch and the Festival de la Musique Montreux-Vevey.

Vesselina Kasarova has recorded many CDs for RCA Red Seal, which have received numerous awards.

Roberta Alexander
Soprano

Among the most compelling singing actresses of our time, the admired black American soprano, Roberta Alexander, enjoys international renown for her riveting, incisive characterizations, miraculous vocal and dramatic range. She was reared in a musical family. She studied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 1969 to 1971, receiving M. Music in 1971, and with Herman Woltman at the Royal Conservatory of Music at The Hague.

Roberta Alexander appeared as Pamina at the Houston Grand Opera in 1980, as Daphne in Santa Fe in 1981, and as Elettra in Idomeneo in Zürich in 1982. Following a tour of Europe, she made a successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Zerlina in November 1983. Among the operatic heroines she has unforgettably portrayed are the title role of Janacek's Jenufa (a Glyndebourne production), Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème, and especially the great Mozart heroines: Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Vitellia in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, the latter a major success with both the public and the press at the Glyndebourne Festival. In addition she has performed principal roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House/Covent Garden, and the major Houses of Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Zurich and Venice. In January 1999, Roberta Alexander sang concert performances of Jenufa, Act 2 with Sir Simon Rattle and the Philadelphia Orchestra, in Philadelphia and at New York's Carnegie Hall. Other recent North American highlights includes a Washington, D.C. recital on the distinguished Vocal Arts Society series and Britten's War Requiem with the Utah Symphony under its Music Director Keith Lockhart, both receiving rapturous critical acclaim.

Equally esteemed as an orchestral soloist, Roberta Alexander recently enjoyed particular success performing Ravel's Shéhérazade with André Previn and the NDR Sinfonieorchester, telecast throughout Europe. She has also performed with the Vienna, London and Royal Philharmonics; Royal Concertgebouw, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Bavarian Radio Orchestras; Cincinnati, Atlanta and Dallas Symphonies; and collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrew Litton, Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, Leonard Slatkin, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Edo De Waart and David Zinman. She recently reunited with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet and the rapturously-received world premiere of Kirchner's Of things exactly as they are. In addition she sang Copland's In the Beginning with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony.

An uncommonly communicative recitalist, Roberta Alexander has offered acclaimed programs at New York's Carnegie Recital Hall, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Vienna Musikverein, London's Wigmore Hall and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. An especially ardent and persuasive interpreter of American masterworks, her latest recordings include Songs My Mother Taught Me and With You (the latter an anthology of Broadway songs).

Roberta Alexander's voluminous discography on the Etcetera, Philips, Sony, Teldec and BMG reflects her astonishing mastery of varied vocal styles: songs by Barber, Mozart, Bernstein, Ives, Copland, Strauss, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Puccini and Villa-Lobos; Handel's Giulio Cesare, Apollo e Daphne, Samson and Theodora; Mozart's Don Giovanni and Idomeneo; and such rarities as Goldschmidt's Der Gewaltige Hahnrei and Beatrice Cenci, Heppener's Four Songs of Ezra Pound and an Edison-winning recording of Andriessen's Songs with Orchestra.

Thomas Oliemans
Baritone

Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans has established himself in recent years as a singer of outstanding musicality and intelligence combined with a compelling stage presence who is at home on the big opera stages as well as in the major concert venues and festivals around the world.

In repertoire that spans from Mozart to Strauss, he has appeared on the stages of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Mr. Redburn/Billy Budd, Schaunard/La Bohème), Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (Bill/Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Papageno/Die Zauberflöte, Hercule/Alceste), English National Opera ( Figaro/Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno/Die Zauberflöte), Teatro Real Madrid (Mr. Redburn/Billy Budd, Silvio de Nardi/Bomarzo, Hercule/Alceste), Göteborg Opera (Il Conte di Almaviva/Le nozze di Figaro, Hamlet/Hamlet), Salzburger Festspiele (Gonsalvo Fieschi/Die Gezeichneten), Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse (Lescaut/Manon Lescaut, Papageno/Die Zauberflöte), Opéra National du Rhin  Eisenstein/Die Fledermaus, Harlequin/Ariadne auf Naxos, Marcello/La Bohème) and Grand Théâtre de Genève (Guglielmo/Cosi fan tutte, Donner/Das Rheingold).

A regular guest at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, he has appeared there as Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte, Papageno in Simon McBurney's production of Die Zauberflöte (which earned him their Prix d’Amis) Lescaut in Manon Lescaut as well as in productions of La Bohème, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg/Kothner, Hänsel und Gretel/Peter, Un ballo in maschera, Castor et Pollux as well as several leading roles in world premieres amongst others. He works regularly with directors such as Deborah Warner, Simon McBurney, Pierre Audi, Christof Loy, Robert Carsen and Ivo van Hove.

Thomas Oliemans regularly collaborates with conducters such as Ivor Bolton, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Raphael Pichon, Marc Albrecht, Hartmut Haenchen, Antonello Manacorda, Jaap van Zweden, James Gaffigan and Vassily Petrenko and with orchestras like the Rotterdam Philhamonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester Basel, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Ensemble Pygmalion and Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

His vast concert repertoire includes Bach’s Passions, Shostakovich’s Michelangelo-Suite and Symphony no 14, Gustav Mahler‘s Das Lied von der Erde, all his orchestral song cycles as well as his 8th Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elias, Richard Danielpour’s Elegies, Beethoven‘s Symphony no 9, Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Sinfonie, Larcher’s Alle Tage and Frank Martin’s Jedermann-Monologe.

A sought-after recitalist, he appears with pianists Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, Graham Johnson and Paolo Giacometti, amongst others, in Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, Zürich, Basel, Antwerp, London (Wigmore Hall), Schloss Elmau, Tokyo and Paris. A regular guest at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, he presented together with Malcolm Martineau the three Schubert song-cycles there within the course of a week, as well as recitals wholly dedicated to Wolf and to Schumann. He curated the 2019 Delft Chamber Music Festival and was on the Jury of the 2019 International Vocal Competition s’Hertogenbosch, where he also appeared in recital with Graham Johnson.

His extensive discography includes Schubert’s three song cycles, Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Akamus Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor under Hans-Georg Rademann, works by Frank Martin for baritone with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Christus in Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and Frans Brüggen and Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Gordan Nikolic.

Highlights in 2020 include Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 with the Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra under Ivor Bolton, Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, conducted by Peter Dijkstra, and Straus’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, both with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Bill in Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny in a production by Ivo van Hove at Dutch National Opera conducted by Markus Stenz, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Het Residentie Orkest and his house and role debut as Stolzius in Die Soldaten by Bernd Alois Zimmermann at Oper Köln.