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 is much in demand as a pianist both for recitals of Lieder and for music theatre productions, chamber music ensembles and oratorium concerts.
Van Nieukerken also gives courses as a guest lecturer on Lied interpretation and Lied accompaniment. In recent years he has taught at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, 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 has worked as vocal coach at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and is currently professor of Lied accompaniment, vocal coach and director of the liedklas at the Artez Conservatory (Zwolle, Enschede & Arnhem).
Ad 's-Gravesande
chairman
radio, television and music personality
Adriaan ’s-Gravesande (1947) studied horn and piano at the conservatory of Aachen (BRD) 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 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 now works as 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.
Elly Ameling
soprano
She studied with Bodi Rapp, Jo Bollekamp, Sem Dresden and Jacoba Dresden-Dhont and later French art song with Pierre Bernac. She won the first prize during the Vocal Concours in ’s-Hertogenbosch in Holland (1956) and the Concours International de Musique in Geneva (1958). After her professional début as a concert singer in Rotterdam in 1953, she performed for more than forty years in virtually every major cultural centre in the world. Her frequent appearances with the leading international orchestras and conductors (Sir Bernard Haitink, Rafael Kubelík, Carlo Maria Giulini, Benjamin Britten, Seiji Ozawa, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Masur, Sir Neville Marriner, Karl Münchinger, André Previn, Edo de Waart among others) established her as one of the greatest singers of our age.
She made her career mainly as a concert and lieder singer with some excursions into opera (Mozart, Haydn) and became world-renowned for her recitals of French and German songs and for her superlative interpretive gifts. She is equally at home in chamber music, orchestral music, operas, and oratorios. She made her U.S. recital debut at New York’s Lincoln Center in 1968 and her opera debut in 1974 as Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo in Washington, D.C.
Contemporary works, particularly by her countrymen Bertus van Lier and Robert Heppener, are also part of her large repertoire. Ameling has recorded more than 150 albums and has won many coveted recording prizes, including The Edison Award, the Grand Prix du Disque and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. For her services to music, Dr. Ameling has been awarded four honorary degrees and has been knighted, in 1971, by Her Majesty the Queen of The Netherlands for her services to music (the Orde van Oranje Nassau) and in 2008 she received the highest civil decoration in the Netherlands, the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
Nowadays Elly Ameling is in great demand throughout the world for her master classes for singers and their pianists.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Ameling had to stand down as a jury member for personal reasons. We gratefully welcome Andreas Schmidt to replace her.
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.
Alessandro Misciasci
pianist
The pianist Alessandro Misciasci was born in Italy. He studied piano, composition and accompaning with Bruno Canino in Castelfranco Veneto and with Paul Schilhawsky in Salzburg. In 1986 he won the International competition in Den Haag for solo accompanists and in the same year was engaged at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg as accompanist-coach in the solo-voice department.
Mr. Misciasci is active as well in master classes with such names as Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Joseph Greindl. He is a regular guest at International festivals in Austria, Germany, France, the Benelux countries and in East Asia.
Because of his unusual sensitivity as an accompanist for singers, his musical competence and far reaching knowledge in this area, Alessandro Misciasci is a much sought after pianist and coach.
Maurice Lammerts van Bueren
pianist
The Dutch pianist Maurice Lammerts van Bueren (1972) studied piano under Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, where he obtained his professional performer’s diploma in 1997. After that he studied chamber music with Ludmilla Baslawskaja at the same institute. With a scholarship of the Prins Bernhard Fonds he was able to have lessons from the famous lied-accompanist Graham Johnson. He won several prizes at music competitions, including first prize at the Steinway Competition and first prize at the Prinses Christina Competition.
Maurice Lammerts van Bueren has become over all a specialist in the accompaniment of singers and in chamber music. His pianotrio “Trio Suleika” won the prestigious “Kersjes Award 2007”, one of the most important chamber music awards in the Netherlands. They also won the “Vriendenkrans 2002″, a prize for young musicians awarded by the Friends of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. At the same competition they also won a master-class prize as well as the prize awarded by the audience. Nowadays the trio, which also consists of violinist Sanne Hunfeld and cellist Pepijn Meeuws, is considered an established ensemble in the Dutch chamber music scene, performing regularly in Holland’s most important halls at main events, such as recitals in highly regarded series at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The trio also performed internationally, amongst others in Paris, Stockholm and Damascus.
He is also the duo partner of the violinist Frederieke Saeijs, winner of the International Violin Competition Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud in France. This duo performs regularly in the Netherlands and abroad, amongst others in famous festivals like Flâneries Musicales de Reims, the Festival de Musique de Menton and the Festival Radio France et Montpellier.
Besides that he accompanied the Dutch violinist Theo Olof for several years. He has been working with many artists, such as the violinist Sonja van Beek, the violin-duo Herman Krebbers/Theo Olof and members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
As a lied-accompanist he works with many singers. He participated in lied-courses given by Elly Ameling, Barbara Bonney, Noelle Barker, Rudolf Jansen and Graham Johnson.
Recently three CD’s have been released. One is a live-recording at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Trio Suleika. The second CD, “Curiosity killed…” with soprano Henriette Feith contains lyrical American songs from the 20th century. The third CD is Trio Suleika’s second CD, with works by Rachmaninov and Dvorák. In 2009 his fourth cd, which contains sonatas for violin and piano from Ravel, Granados and Respighi, together with violiniste Frederieke Saeijs, will appear under the classical label Naxos..
Besides his concerts in The Netherlands he performed in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, France, Slovenia, Trinidad, Sweden, the Middle-East, Taiwan and the United States of America.
Maurice Lammerts van Bueren is a coach at the singing department of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
Carolyn Watkinson
mezzo-soprano
The English mezzo-soprano, Carolyn Watkinson, received her training at the Royal Manchester College of Music and in The Hague.
Carolyn Watkinson first established herself as a fine concert singer, especially excelling in Baroque music. In 1978 she sang Rameau’s Phèdre at the English Bach Festival at London’s Covent Garden. In 1979 she appeared as Monteverdi’s Nero with the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam.
In 1981 Carolyn Watkinson made her debut at Milan’s La Scala as Ariodante and sang Rossini’s Rosina in Stuttgart. She appeared as Gluck’s Orfeo with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1982, and then made her formal debut at the Glyndebourne Opera as Cherubino in 1984. In 1987 she made a tour of Australia. She was a soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion at Gloucester Cathedral in a performance shown on BBC-TV on Good Friday in 1989. In 1990 she appeared as Purcell’s Dido at the Salerno Cathedral and sang Nero at the Innsbruck Festival. She also continued to sing regularly as a concert artist in a repertoire ranging from early music to the contemporary period.
Kurt Widmer
baritone
Since l967 the Swiss Bariton has been active as a concert and oratorio singer in Europe, Israel, Egypt, the USA, Canada, Russia, Korea and Japan. The repertoire of his numerous recordings ranges from Machaut's Mass to contemporary works. He has been engaged for more than 100 first perfomances. He is specially interested in H.W. Henze "El Cimarron", Y. Xenakis "Kassandra" and the works of G. Kurtag "Hölderlin-Lieder" and "Beckett-Cycle". His passion belongs to the"Lied" from the beginning until now. He received several prices for different recordings, for 2003 the Prize of the Year from „Deutsche Schallplattenkritik“. Kurt Widmer was a Professor of a concert-class at the Conservatory of the Basle Academy of Music and is a teacher in great demand for Mastercourses.
Unfortunately, Mr. Widmer had to stand down as a jury member for personal reasons. We gratefully welcome Annett Andriessen to replace him.
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.
Andreas Schmidt
Bass-baritone
Andreas Schmidt was born 1960 in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he began his studies with piano, organ and conducting before changing to singing. His teachers were Ingeborg Reicheltin Düsseldorf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin.
After he had won the „Deutscher Musikwettbewerb" in 1983, he immediately started his operatic career at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Since then he has sung numerous roles inBerlin, in the Deutsche Oper as well as in the Staatsoper, for example Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte), Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Don Giovanni, Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Valentin (Faust), Posa (Don Carlo), Amonasro (Aida), Marcello (Boheme), Beckmesser (Meistersinger), Amfortas (Parsifal), Faninal (Rosenkavalier), Gunther (Götterdämmerung), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) and many others. He also appeared in world premiere performances by Henze, Rihm and Ruzicka.
Concert and Recitaltours lead him to the musical centers of the world, where he appearedwith nearly all of the important orchestras under conductors like Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Bernstein, Bertini, Blomstedt, Bolton, Bychkov, Chailly, Conlon, C. Davis, Dohnanyi, Eschenbach, Frühbeck de Burgos, Gatti, Gardiner, Giulini, Haitink, Harnoncourt, Janowski, Jordan, Levine, Luisi, Marriner, Masur, Metzmacher, Muti, Nagano, Norrington, Ozawa, Rilling, Sawallisch, Schreier, Sinopoli, Solti, Stein, Tate, Thielemann and many others.
Beside his work as opera and concertsinger, he is as well known in the field of the german"Lied". Since a number of years he works mainly with the Pianist Rudolf Jansen, but he hasalways sung with other partners like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Elena Bashkirova, Daniel Barenboim, Jörg Demus, Helmut Deutsch, Hartmut Höll, Burkhard Kehring, Geoffrey Parsons and Roger Vignoles.
Andreas Schmidt is a regular guest in festivals like Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, the Berliner Festwochen, the Wiener Festwochen and the Bayreuther Festspiele,where he sang "Amfortas" in five consecutive years as well as "Beckmesser" for seven years.
Andreas Schmidt is a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg and a honorary member of the Richard-Wagner-Verband Düsseldorf. In 1997 the senate of the City of Hamburg appointed him "Kammersänger". Since 2008 he is teaching as a Professor at theHochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden, in 2010 he changed to the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich.
