Artists
Rising star Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha won the Song Prize at the 2021 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and is a current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Most recently, Rangwanasha was awarded the 2024 Herbert von Karajan Prize. In 2024/25, Rangwanasha will perform, among others, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Verdi Requiem at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra, Rossini Stabat Mater with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra or Strauss Vier letzte Lieder with Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. Rangwanasha has also performed Barber Knoxville: The Summer of 1915, Mendelssohn Symphony No. 2, Mahler Das Klagende Lied, Tippett A Child of Our Time, and other roles including Élisabeth de Valois (Don Carlos) or Elettra (Idomeneo).
Matilda Sterby has been named one of OperaWire's Top Ten Rising Stars 2024 and has quickly established herself as one of the most prominent young Swedish singers. Her impressive career start includes performances at Volksoper Wien, Staatsoper Hannover, Malmö Opera and the Gothenburg Opera, performing the roles of Mařenka (The Bartered Bride) Micaëla (Carmen), Fünfte Magd (Elektra), Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), or Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte). She has also appeared in concert in, amongst others, Monteverdi’s Vespers and Beethoven's 9th Symphony. She completed her study at University College of Opera in Stockholm in 2019, and is the winner of Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition 2024, the Schymberg Award 2022, a finalist in the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's prestigious Solist Prize 2024, and a recipient of the esteemed Birgit Nilsson Scholarship 2024.
Matthias Goerne is regularly invited to the most important festivals and concert halls of the world, as the Wigmore Hall in London or the Carnegie Hall in New York. In his important career as an interpreter of lied he has been accompanied by pianists as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alfred Brendel, Christoph Eschenbach, Elisabeth Leonskaja or Alexander Schmalcz. Since making his debut as an opera singer at the Salzburg Festival in 1997 as Papageno (The magic flute), he has been invited to perform in the ROH of London, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Semper Opera House in Dresden, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York or the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. He has performed, among others the Wagnerian roles of Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) and the protagonists Lear of Aribert Reimann or Wozzeck of Alban Berg.
Swedish pianist Matti Hirvonen is regarded as one of the leading accompanists in Scandinavia, equally comfortable in all forms of chamber music. He has performed extensively with singers Elisabeth Söderström, Nina Stemme, Miah Persson, Iréne Theorin, Wolfgang Holzmair and Bo Skovhus, among many others. Hirvonen studied piano, accompaniment, and chamber music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Royal College of Music in Stockholm, and privately in London. A frequent guest at festivals throughout Europe, such as Edinburgh, Grafenegg, Aix-en Provence, and Schleswig-Holstein, Hirvonen performs at major venues such as the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Philharmonie Köln, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Luxemburg, Oper Frankfurt, Laieszhalle Hamburg, and Weill Recital Hall in New York. He has also performed extensively in Japan.
As soloist, chamber musician and Lied accompanist, Maximilian Kromer has been the guest of multiple concert venues, such as the Viennese Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Konzerthaus Dortmund or the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and of music festivals in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Rheingau, the Tonhalle Maag in Zurich or the Mozartwoche in Salzburg. In 2023 he presented the release of a CD with baritone Daniel Gutmann, published by Gramola, including musical settings by Robert Schumann of poems by Heine. The same label has recently also presented Kromer’s debut solo album with recordings of virtuoso Viennese piano works. Since 2022 he has been in vivid musical exchange with one of the leading authorities in Lied accompaniment, Helmut Deutsch. Furthermore, the young pianist can look back on numerous concerts with outstanding musical partners such as Rolando Villazón, Daniel Müller-Schott or Michael Schade.
