

Podium young artist

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.

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.

Born in Albacete, Spain, in 1997, he is studing his Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music in London and he studies at the Reina Sofía School of Music's Fundación Banco Santander Piano Chair since 2024. He is the winner, among others, of the second prize at the Paderewski International Piano Competition in Poland; the first prize at the International Piano Competition Compositores de España; the Rosa Sabater Award at the International Piano Competition “Premio Jaen” or the first prize at the César Franck International Piano Competition in Brussels. He has given recitals all over Europe and performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the OH! Orchestra at the Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw, the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia, the Symphony Orchestra of Castilla y León, the Orchestra of Valencia, the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville or the Pomeranian Hall Symphony Orchestra in Poland.