Elly Ameling
Honary Member of the Jury
We are proud to know that Elly Ameling, the grande dame of Lied art in the Netherlands and throughout the world, lends her moral support to the Competition.
(Please note, Mrs Ameling will not be active in the jury during the competition.)
Ad 's-Gravesande
chairman
radio, television and music personality
Adriaan ’s-Gravesande (1947) studied horn and piano at the conservatory of Aachen and political science at the University of Amsterdam. He then worked for AVRO radio and television, VARA radio and VPRO television. For the latter broadcasting company, he hosted many discussion programmes on social and cultural themes and he made documentaries, mostly about music.
From 1984 to 1991, ’s-Gravesande was director of the Holland Festival, as well as manager of Amsterdam Capital of Culture (1987). Later, he worked as the editor in chief for the weekly magazine HP/De Tijd and as editor in chief for the television channel AT5. Then, as an independent media producer, advisor and presenter he worked for Dutch broadcasting companies NOS, NPS, VPRO and for Canal+. From 1997, ’s-Gravesande was director of the Netherlands Film and Television Academy and he was part of the management team of the Amsterdam College of Arts. From 1999 to 2005 he returned to the broadcasting company he once started his career, the AVRO, now as director.
‘s-Gravesande currently works as an interim manager in the world of arts and media, most recently as director ad interim of Asko|Schönberg. Adriaan ’s-Gravesande also is an active board member, among others as chairman of the Society for Arts, Culture and Heritage/Kunsten ’92, as a member of the supervisory board of the concert hall De Doelen in Rotterdam and as chairman of C, broadcasting company for arts and culture.
Roberta Alexander
Soprano
Roberta Alexander, soprano, was born in the United States and today lives in the Netherlands. She is internationally renowned. Most memorable are her interpretations of Janacek’s Jenufa (title role), Mimi in Puccini’s La Bohème, and most notably the great roles for her type of voice in Mozart’s operas such as Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito).
Roberta Alexander performs regularly at the top-rank opera stages including Glyndebourne, the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Covent Garden Royal Opera House and the opera houses of Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Zürich, Amsterdam and Venice. Roberta Alexander reprised her interpretation of Jenufa in concert performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra lead by Sir Simon Rattle, both in Philadelphia and in Carnegie Hall, New York.
In addition to her career as an opera singer, Roberta Alexander has become appreciated as a concert singer. She was successful with Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the NDR symphony orchestra lead by André Previn. She also performed with the Wiender Philharmoniker, the London and Royal Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Bayerische Rundfunk and the symphony orchestras of Cincinnati, Atlanta and Dallas.
Also, Roberta Alexander is a highly communicative recital singer. She was invited to series in Carnegie Hall, New York, to the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, to the Wiener Musikverein, to Wigmore Hall, London, to the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and to the renowned series of the Vocal Arts Society in Washington DC.
Since 2002, Roberta Alexander has held a position at the Codarts School of Arts, Rotterdam.
Rudolf Jansen
pianist
Rudolf Jansen was born in Arnhem (the Netherlands). He studied piano, organ and harpsichord simultaneously at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Nelly Wagenaar, his father Simon C. Jansen and Gustav Leonhardt. In 1964 he won the Prix d’Excllence for organ, in 1966 the Prix for piano. He later graduated as an accompanist with Felix de Nobel. In 1965 he won the Tookunst Jubileumprijs and in 1966 the Circle of friends of the Concertgebouw awarded him with the Zilveren Vriendenkrans.
Next to his solo career Rudolf Jansen has concentrated more and more on Lied-accompaniment and chamber music.
Concert tours took him all over the world, together with artists of great reputation: Elly Ameling, Robert Holl, Han de Vries, Andreas Schmidt, Olaf Bär, Barbara Bonney, Tom Krause, Hans-Peter Blochwitz, Edith Wiens, Birgit Finnilä, Irina Arkiphova, Brigitte Fassbänder, Udo Reinemann and Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Rudolf Jansen regularly gives masterclasses for singers and accompanists in, among others, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Italy, the United States, Canada and Japan. In November 1996 he was invited by the Juilliard School of Music to give a masterclass in New York.
He made many recordings with songs and chamber music for, among others, Philips, DGG, EMI, CBS and Erato, of which two were awarded with an Edison: with hobo player Han de Vries (1973, EMI) and with Dorothy Dorow (complete Webern Lieder, 1987 Etcetera).
In 1993 he completed the recording of the songs of Edvard Grieg, with four different singers, released on seven CD’s at Victoria (Norway).
In 1996 a series of three CD’s appeared on the Dutch label NM-Classics with the complete song-oeuvre by Alphons Diepenbrock, for which Rudolf Jansen worked with five singers. In 1999 a cassette with eight CD’s appeared (RCA) with recordings of all songs by Richard Strauss, with baritone Andreas Schmidt and soprano Juliane Banse. A CD with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the Nederlands Kamerkoor received in 1992 the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis.
Rudolf Jansen is professor at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and holds a “Lehrauftrag” at the “Hochschule für Musik” in Augsburg.
Annett Andriesen
Mezzo-soprano
The Dutch mezzo-soprano Annett Andriesen celebrated her debute with De Nederlandse Opera in 1977 in the legendary Elektra production by director Harry Kupfer. Her repertoire includes roles such as Fricka/Erda (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Gravin (Pique Dame), Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), Fortunata (Satyricon), Mary (Der fliegende Holländer), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), La Zia Principessa (Suor Angelica), La Prieure/Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des Carmélites), Azucena (Il Trovatore), Klytämnestra (Elektra), Kostelnicka (Jenufa) en Kabanicha (Kát'a Kabanová). She performed in various world permieres, including Axel (Van Vlijmen/De Leeuw), Naima (Theo Loevendie), Dr. Faustus (Konrad Boehmer), Rixt (Henk Alkema), and Raaff (Robin de Raaf).
Andreisen is also the artistic and managing director of the International Vocal Competition IVC 's Hertogenbosch. In addition, she is a teacher at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and offers vocal training to jazz and pop singers. In 2009, she was chair of the jury for the popular TV show Una Voce Particolare. In 2010, she chaired the jury of the Grande Finale of the same show. During the season 2010-2011 she sings Paní Pásková in The Cunning Little Vixen at De Nederlandse Opera, and in Lulu at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona. Other recent productions at DNO in which she starred are Rigoletto, Jevgeni Onjegin, and The Makropulos Affair.
Andriesen is a consultant to the music theatre section of the Netherlands Performing Arts Foundation, and a board member of various foundations, including the Antilopera foundation, Voi-z Festival Zwolle, the Rixt foundation, and the Leucanthemum foundation.
David Wilson-Johnson
baritone
The British baritone David Wilson-Johnson was born in Northampton, studied Modern Languages at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he won many prizes including the Dove Prize for most distinguished student. In the early days he sang in the choirs of St Margaret’s Westminster (Richard Hickox), The London Oratory, (John Hoban) the BBC Singers (John Poole) and the Monteverdi Choir (John Eliot Gardiner.) Since then, over a career already spanning thirty-five years, he has been a guest of the major opera houses and orchestras and festivals worldwide. He has sung under the most distinguished conductors including Pierre Boulez, Frans Brüggen, Sir Colin and Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Carlo-Maria Giulini, Hartmut Haenchen, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Oliver Knussen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Gustav Leonhardt, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Kenneth Montgomery, André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and Evgeny Svetlanov.
He made his operatic debut at Covent Garden in Henze’s We Come to the River in 1976 and sang regularly there over twenty-one years in a wide range of roles including Billy Budd, Le Rossignol, L’Enfant et les Sortilleges, Boris Godunov, Turandot, Werther, Die Zauberflöte, Arianna, Cosí fan tutte. He also sang in Peter Grimes (Amsterdam, Brussels, Geneva, Madrid), Billy Budd (ENO, ROH, Opera Bastille), La Damnation de Faust (Turin, Tanglewood), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Amsterdam, Paris), Die Zauberflöte (Opera Garnier), Tristan und Isolde ( London, Monte Carlo), Ariadne auf Naxos (Paris),Punch and Judy, Die Gluckliche Hand, Von Heute auf Morgen, Les Troyens, Les Indes Galantes (Amsterdam) Rameau’s Les Boreades (Salzburg Festival), Eight Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies (Opéra Comique), The Lighthouse (Edinburgh Festival), Sir Michael Tippett’s A Midsummer Marriage (tv film) and the title role in Messiaen’s St François d’Assise (London, BBCTV, Lyon, Amsterdam, Brussels, New York and Edinburgh Festival).
His most memorable concerts have been Mahler 8 with the NYO under Rattle, Tippett’s King Priam under David Atherton at the BBC Proms, Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers under Knussen at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole, and Brahms Requiem under Previn in Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh and Oslo and Haydn’s Seasons under Rattle, plus The Creation (educational projects in Amsterdam and Paris) with Brüggen, Britten’s Death in Venice under Montgomery and Enescu’s Oedipe at the Holland Festival. He sang Beethoven’s Ninth under Leonard Slatkin at the Last Night of the Proms in 2001 after the events of 9/11 to a worldwide audience of 340 million.
Maurice Lammerts van Bueren
pianist
The Dutch pianist Maurice Lammerts van Bueren studied under Jan Wijn (solo) and Ludmilla Baslawskaja (chamber music) at the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam. He took lessons in Lieder accompaniment with Graham Johnson.
Recently, he appeared as Angelika Kirchschlager's Lieder accompanist during a live television broadcast, which was watched by over one million viewers.
Maurice Lammerts van Bueren has developed into a specialist in the accompaniment of singers and in chamber music. With Trio Suleika, his piano trio, he won the Kersjes Award, Holland’s most prestigious chamber music award, as well as the Vriendenkrans, a prize awarded by the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
He has been working with artists such as violinists Frederieke Saeijs and Theo Olof, the violin duo of Herman Krebbers and Theo Olof, and various members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
As a Lieder accompanist, he worked with many singers, including Henriette Feith, Hans Pieter Herman, Mattijs van de Woerd, Robbert Muuse and Karolina Hartman. His concerts took him to Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden, Slovenia, Taiwan, Trinidad, Syria and the U.S.A.
He recorded several CDs with Trio Suleika (Brahms, Dvorák, Rachmaninoff, Ravel), soprano Henriette Feith (American songs) and Frederieke Saeijs (sonatas by Ravel, Respighi and Granados under the Naxos label).
Lammerts van Bueren works as a vocal coach at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He has been a Steinway Artist since 2008.
Thomas Steinhöfel
Pianist
Thomas Steinhöfel studied at the music school „Schloss Belvedere Weimar“ after receiving his first piano lessons and than went on to study at The College of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar in the piano class of Volkmar Lehmann and Lied class with Ludwig Bätzel.After completing his diploma he received a two-year scholarship at the Music Academy in Budapest, where he continued his studies with Ferenc Rados and Attila Némethy.
Since 1993 he has been a professor of piano and Lied at the College of music FRANZ LISZT in Weimar. During the Weimar Masterclasses he accompanied vocal and instrumental courses for different guest professors as well as playing for the „International Young Violinists Louis Spohr Competition“.
Among various singer partners he frequently worked together with mezzosoprano Alexandra Sherman, soprano Venceslava Hruba-Freiberger, tenor Uwe Stickert and bariton Mario Hoff.Guest courses have led him to many european countries (Guildhall school of music London, Conservatorio G. Verdi Milano, Music academy F. Liszt Budapest, Mimar Sinaan university Istanbul, University Jyväskylä,) as well as Brazil and USA.
In the Liszt-Festival- 2011 he played several solo concerts with works of Liszt in Bayreuth, Weimar and Meiningen. In the same year he hold masterclasses to the Liedrepertoire of Franz Liszt at the Joseph-Haydn Konservatorium Eisenstadt and at the Janacek-academy in Brno.
He finished the CD-recording of Complete German Folk Songs of Johannes Brahmsand released a CD with works for four hands by Johann Nepomuk Hummel with pianist Sebastian Roth.
Marien van Nieukerken
The pianist Marien van Nieukerken studied with Thom Bollen. After gaining his diploma as a solo pianist he specialised as an accompanist for singers. He studied with George van Renesse, Karel Hilsum, Felix de Nobel and Rudolf Jansen, amongst others. In 1986 he was one of four finalists in the First International Contest for Lied accompanists, held in the Hague.
He has worked with many well-known singers, including Ruud van der Meer, Johannette Zomer, Brian Galliford and the legendary Guus Hoekman. He accompanied recitals of Lieder in the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and countless more venues throughout Europe, the United States and Canada. He accompanied master classes given by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Cora Canne Meijer and David Wilson-Johnson, amongst others. April 2012, he went a tour with master classes and concerts in Japan.
Marien has worked on a large number of radio and television recordings. Together with the baritone Charles van Tassel, he recorded 35 Charles Ives songs on CD and the Lieder of Matthijs Vermeulen (Donemus, the Complete Matthijs Vermeulen Edition).
Marien van Nieukerken is familiar with both the classical and the contemporary repertoire of Lieder. Several composers have dedicated Lieder to him, including Joep Straesser, Adriaan de Wit, Walter Hekster, Gustavo Trujillo and Christina Viola Oorebeek.
He also regularly gives courses as a guest lecturer on Lied interpretation and Lied accompaniment. He is a regular guest at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and in recent years, he has taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Weimar, the State University Montclair, US, the Academia dell’Arte in Osimo, Italy, and the Faculty of Music of the University in Jyväskyla, Finland.
Van Nieukerken is a vocal coach at the ArtEZ Conservatory, where he is also director of the Lied class and professor of piano, chamber music and song accompaniment. He also worked as a repetiteur and coach for singers at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
Foto: Parastoo Shokati
Earlier editions
Jury members of earlier editions include Elly Ameling (2009), Margriet van Rijssen (2009), Allessandro Misciasci (2009 and 2011), Carolyn Watkinson (2011), and Andreas Schmidt (2011).
