Masterclass I-IV

Edda MoserHerbert von Karajan brought the soprano to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she celebrated her spectacular debut as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Since then, she has appeared on all the world’s major opera stages and worked with the most famous conductors. She impresses not only with her high vocal artistry, but also with her convincing performance and is regarded as the most important Mozart interpreter of our time. A recording of the Queen of the Night’s revenge aria was sent into space on a copper record on board the “Voyager 2” space probe as an example of human vocal artistry. It is assumed that this recording will still be audible in over a trillion years’ time. Edda Moser taught at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, where she is a professor for life. She passes on her knowledge in master classes in several European countries. In addition, Edda Moser is particularly committed to the cultivation and preservation of the German language. She is the initiator and artistic director of the Festival of the German Language, which was founded in 2006 and has been held in the historic Goethe Theater Bad Lauchstädt every September since 2007 on the recommendation of former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher. She has been awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon and the Order of Merit of the State of Saxony-Anhalt. Her biography “Ersungenes Glück” was published in 2011.

Alessandro Misciascistudied piano at the Conservatorio di musica Agostino in Castelfranco Veneto. In 1986, he won a prize at the international competition for lied accompanists in The Hague. In the same year, Paul Schilhawsky brought him to the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he has worked as a répétiteur ever since. As a sought-after lied accompanist, he has given concerts with Markus Werba, Zurab Zurabishvili, Mirjam Tola, Sokolin Asllani and Asmik Grigorian, among others. He has also accompanied numerous master classes by world-famous opera greats such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Josef Greindl and Christa Ludwig. At the Salzburg Festival, he has worked as a musical assistant on several productions, including under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Daniele Gatti, Gianandrea Noseda and Christian Thielemann. Misciasci is also committed to contemporary music. In 2001, he accompanied Caren van Oijen on the CD production of the vocal works of Dutch composer Erik Lotichius (1929-2015). In the same year, he performed the world premiere of the song cycle IX Psalmen by Thomas Bernhard for mezzo-soprano and piano by Hubert Steppan (1928-2009) at the Salzburg State Theater on the occasion of the “70 Years of Thomas Bernhard” ceremony. In 2012, the Conservatorio di musica Agostino Steffani honored Misciasci with the Premio alla carriera for special musical merits. Misciasci was a guest lecturer at the Icelandic Academy of Fine Arts in Reykjavík in 2017, where he also gave a singing masterclass in 2016.