Opera

Kai RöhrigThe conductor studied at the Cologne University of Music and at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in the class of Michael Gielen, and also attended summer courses with Rolf Liebermann. He is a prizewinner of the International Mozarteum Foundation, which honoured him with the “Bernhard Paumgartner Medal”. He has worked as a musical assistant at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals. As a protégé of Bernard Haitink, he was engaged by the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Concertgebouw Orkest in Amsterdam. For several years he worked as assistant to Pierre Boulez with various orchestras in Salzburg, Vienna and Paris. In addition to his positions as Kapellmeister, Kai Röhrig was Music Director of the Salzburg State Theatre for several years. In ten seasons, he conducted more than four hundred performances here. In recent years, he has also appeared as a guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Hanover State Opera, the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich and the Innsbruck State Theatre, among others. Since October 2014, he has been a professor and musical director of the opera class at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. As part of the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010 festival, he conducted a production of Hans Werner Henze’s opera Das Wundertheater. At the Salzburg Festival, he conducted productions of The Magic Flute, The Abduction from the Seraglio and performances of La Cenerentola as part of the Young Singers Project. He recently conducted a production of the opera Mozart and Salieri by N. Rimsky-Korsakov as part of the 2024 Salzburg Mozart Week. In summer 2023, he conducted a production of H. Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and the world premiere of Henry Fourès’ Elissa at the “La Chigiana” festival in Siena. In summer 2024, he will once again appear at the “La Chigiana” festival in Siena with a production of Britten’s opera The Turn of the Screw. Concerts regularly take Kai Röhrig to the podium of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra. In recent years, he has made guest appearances with orchestras such as the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen. He made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie conducting the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester. At his debut at the Tonhalle Zurich, he conducted a world premiere by Boris Mersson and the 14th Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich. He made his debut at the Seoul Arts Centre conducting the KBS Symphony Orchestra in a concert performance of R. Wagner’s Walküre. He last conducted the opera Ariadne auf Naxos in 2008 at the Salzburg Festspielhaus in a production by Stephen Medcalf.

Juliane BanseFew artists of her generation are as successful as soprano Juliane Banse in so many areas and with such a diverse repertoire. Her operatic repertoire ranges from Feldmarschallin, Figaro Countess, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia to Genoveva, Leonore, Tatjana, Arabella and Grete (Schreker’s Der ferne Klang). She achieved her artistic breakthrough at the age of 20 as Pamina at the Komische Oper Berlin in a production by Harry Kupfer. Her performance at the Zurich Opera as Snow White in the world premiere of the opera of the same name by Heinz Holliger, with whom she has always worked closely, is also unforgettable. Born in southern Germany and raised in Zurich, the artist initially took lessons with Paul Steiner, later with Ruth Rohner at the Zurich Opera House and then completed her studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich. She teaches as a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and from the winter semester of 2023 she will take over as director of the Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid. She also gives masterclasses at home and abroad and is a sought-after jury member at international competitions. In concert, the artist performs a wide-ranging repertoire, which has brought her together with renowned conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Marin Alsop, Zubin Mehta and Manfred Honeck.

Christoph StrehlBorn in Lübeck, tenor Christoph Strehl studied at the Folkwang University in Essen with Soto Papulkas and privately with Silvana Bazzoni-Bartoli. He completed master classes with Axel Bauni, Norman Shetler, Josef Metternich, Gianni Raimondi and Claude Thiolas. In 2002, he became a member of the Zurich Opera House ensemble, where he remained for nine years. He made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2003 as Don Ottavio under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. From then on, his international career as a Mozart tenor took him to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Geneva, Hamburg, Madrid, Munich, Paris, the Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden and the Met, as well as the festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Baden-Baden, Lucerne and the Wiener Festwochen. In addition to a busy concert schedule, he regularly gives recitals with Helmut Deutsch and Pauliina Tukiainen, among others. He was Tamino in Claudio Abbado’s CD recording of The Magic Flute and has worked with renowned conductors such as Gianluca Capuana, Constantinos Carydis, William Christie, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Ádám Fischer, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Phillip Herreweghe, James Levine, Marc Minkowski and Franz Welser-Möst as well as the directors Sven-Eric Bechtholf , Dieter Dorn, Claus Guth, Stefan Herheim, Jens Daniel Herzog, Martin Kusej, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Christof Loy, Damiano Michieletto, Tobias Moretti and Katharina Thalbach.

Franz TscherneIn addition to his 25-year career in the theater, from the Burgtheater in Vienna to the theaters in Zurich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt, to the Bavarian State Theater in Munich and the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna, as well as in numerous film and TV productions, Franz Tscherne has increasingly devoted himself to musical theater. For example, he played Perchik in the musical Anatevka at the Aalto Theater in Essen under the direction of GMD Stefan Soltesz. At the Munich Philharmonie, he was the narrator in a concert performance of Lortzing’s “Zar und Zimmermann” under Leopold Hager and recited Dante in Wolf Ferrari’s “La vita nuova” under Marcello Viotti. For Bayerischer Rundfunk, he was the narrator in Honegger’s “Der Totentanz” under the musical direction of Ulf Schirmer. With this conductor, Franz Tscherne also performed Rilke’s “Cornet” in Viktor Ullmann’s setting at the Prinzregententheater in Munich. Franz Tscherne made his debut on the opera stage in 2003 in Venice, in a new Teatro la Fenice production of “Ariadne auf Naxos”. At the Teatro Malibran, he played the Haushofmeister with great success under the musical direction of Maestro Viotti. He subsequently also performed this role in a new production of “Ariadne” by Philippe Arlaud at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, at the Budapest State Opera, at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2022.

Bernd ValentinThe baritone Bernd Valentin studied singing with Claudio Nicolai and Klesie Kelly in Cologne. Permanent engagements took him to the theaters in Kiel and Hagen, the Hanover State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He then worked as a freelancer, making guest appearances in Aachen, Berlin, Bonn, Hanover, Nuremberg, Munich, Bern and Basel, in Innsbruck and at the Volksoper in Vienna, continuously expanding his opera repertoire to over 100 roles in German, Italian and French repertoire. Bernd Valentin has been invited to give concerts at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Frauenkirche Dresden, the Liederhalle Stuttgart and the Philharmonie am Gasteig Munich and has performed at festivals throughout Europe, Asia and America. In addition to the great oratorio works by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Brahms, he has also sung world premieres of works by Gubaidulina and Sandström under Helmuth Rilling and Ben-Haim’s “Joram” with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv. The organization of recitals is an important concern for Bernd Valentin. In addition to interpreting song cycles such as Schubert’s “Winterreise”, Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” and “Liederkreis”, Wolf’s “Italienisches Liederbuch”, Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” and “Wunderhorn-Lieder”, Martin’s “Jedermann-Monologe”, Poulenc’s “Le Bal masqué” and Reimann’s “Dark and Shine”, he particularly enjoys putting together programmatic song recitals.

Jesse MashburnThe American mezzo-soprano Jesse Mashburn comes from Hartselle, Alabama. At the age of thirteen, she was encouraged by her choir director at school to study classical music. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory in 2018 and her Master of Music from the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland in 2020. Since 2022, she has been studying in the post-graduate opera class of Rosamund Gilmore, Florentine Klepper and Kai Röhrig at the Mozarteum University, where she will soon appear as Mistress Quickly (Falstaff) and the Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos). Mashburn’s recent roles include Sorceress (Elissa/Dido and Aeneas), Mrs. Grose in (Turn of the Screw) and Witch (Hansel and Gretel), also at the Mozarteum University, as well as Polinesso (Ariodante), Bradamante (Alcina) and Baba (The Medium) and Cinderella’s Mother/Granny/Giant in Sondheim’s Into the Woods. She has also performed the roles of Nicklausse (Les contes d’Hoffmann) at the Miami Summer Music Festival and Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Oberlin Conservatory. The magazine ‘Cleveland Classical’ writes: “…the mellifluous Jesse Mashburn brought great comic character to the role of Marcellina”. In the summer of 2021, she took part in the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco as an up-and-coming artist. The San Francisco Chronicle described her performance in the Merola Grand Finale Concert as “extravagantly theatrical”.

Lucas PellbäckBorn in London, Swedish tenor Lucas Pellbäck discovered his passion for music at a young age. When he moved to Sweden, he became a member of the cathedral boys’ choir and took piano lessons. From 2016, he took singing lessons, first with Lars Johansson Brissman and later with Paul Farrington at the Lilla Akademien music school in Stockholm. Lucas Pellbäck has been studying at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Bernd Valentin since 2020, where he first appeared on the opera stage in Gounod’s Faust in 2022. In 2023, Lucas Pellbäck could be seen as Lehrbube in Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Landestheater Linz and in the role of Sailor in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Other appearances include concerts in Stockholm at the Thielska Galleriet, the Grünewaldsalen Concert Hall, Djursholm Castle and at the opening of the newly built concert hall for Queen Silvia of Sweden and at the O/Modernt Festival. Lucas Pellbäck has also given solo recitals at the Kalmarsunds Music Festival. He has also performed as a soloist in Claudio Monteverdi’s Marian Vespers and Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien. In summer 2024, he will take on the role of Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff (production of the Mozarteum University Salzburg).

Konstantin IglTenor Konstantin Igl received his first vocal training in the singing class of tenor Ferdinand Seiler at the Gnadenthal music high school in Ingolstadt. Following his Abitur, he studied to become a secondary school teacher of mathematics and music in Munich, which he completed with the first state examination. Since 2022, he has been studying for a Master’s degree in Lied and Oratorio with Pauliina Tukiainen and Christoph Strehl at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. He can also be seen on the opera stage time and again, including as Monostatos in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Magic Flute, as Dona Pasqua in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s opera Il Campiello, as Peter Quint in Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw, as Aeneas in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and most recently as the Witch in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, all under the direction of Kai Röhrig. Konstantin Igl is a member of the BachWerkVokal ensemble, with which he regularly performs Bach’s music in small ensembles.

Brett Pruunsildcomes from Estonia and studies BA singing at the Mozarteum University with Bernd Valentin. His first musical education in Estonia was at the Tartu I Children’s Music School where he majored in piano with Tiiu Noor, after which he continued his studies at the Heino Eller Music School where he majored in singing with Karmen Puis. Brett currently sings regularly with the Ensemble BachWerkVokal Salzburg under the direction of Gordon Safari and performs annually at the Estonian Festival Concerts under the direction of Lilyan Kaiv in his home town of Tartu, which has been named European Capital of Culture this year. In 2023, the young singer appeared on the opera stage as Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and as Peter in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel in university productions. As part of the Mozartwoche 2024 and collaboration with the Marionettentheater Salzburg, Brett made his debut as Salieri in Rimski Korsakow’s short opera “Mozart&Salieri”. In summer 2024, Brett Pruunsild will make his debut at the Salzburg Festival with a children’s opera production.

Dominik Schumertlwas born in 1995 and grew up in a musical family near Landsberg am Lech. Since 2015, Dominik Schumertl has performed as a soloist in orchestral masses and church concerts as well as in concerts in the Landsberg and Munich region. He has been a member of the Bel-Voce vocal soloists since 2016 and has taken part in concerts in Germany, Croatia and Mallorca as well as workshops under the direction of Vera Borisova, Norbert Henß and Claudia Grundmann. From 2016, he took singing lessons with Antonia Brunner (Munich State Opera Chorus) and Egon Komann (Munich University of Music and Performing Arts), who prepared the young bass for the entrance exam at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. He has been studying at the Mozarteum Salzburg in Andreas Macco’s singing class since 2018. In October 2019, he made his debut in the role of Efraim in the world premiere of Nils Urban Östlund’s family opera Pippi Longstocking. In December of the same year, he sang as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah in Munich. He took part as a chorister in productions of The Tales of Hoffmann and La clemenza di Tito at the Mozarteum University. In December 2021, he appeared in the role of Bacchus in the Mozarteum’s production of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. In July 2022, he made his debut as bass soloist in the roles of Raphael and Adam in Die Schöpfung by Joseph Haydn in Berg am Laim (Munich).

Yukari FukuiJapanese soprano Yukari Fukui began her bachelor’s degree at the Nagoya University of Music in 2009. After graduating in 2013, she studied as an apprentice at the International University Kagoshima with Prof. Uwe Heilmann. In 2019 she graduated in Master Opera Singing at the University of Music Karlsruhe with Prof. Maria Venuti and in 2024 in Soloist Exam Opera Singing with Prof. Hanno Müler-Brachmann. She received opera coaching at the Institute for Music Theater Karlsruhe with KS Prof. Julia Varady and KS Dorothea Röschmann. She won the jury prize at the National Youth Classical Music Competition Japan in 2009 and 4th prize at the National Classical Music Competition Japan in 2013. In 2015 she won 2nd prize at the music competition “Concert for young musicians” in Japan and in 2019 she was also a prizewinner at the International Casting Competition Opernspiele Munot. She won the special prize of the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg for the best interpretation of a vocal work by W. A. Mozart at the 15th International Mozart Competition in Salzburg and received the “Silver Medal” at the 4th Vienna International Music Competition and 1st prize at the Kulturfonds Baden e. V. “Bela Voce” 2023 competition. She was also awarded 2nd prize at the Basel International Online Vocal Competition. She has already sung in various roles in Japan, both in oratorios and opera performances.

Anastasia FedorenkoUkrainian-born soprano Anastasia Fedorenko completed her Bachelor’s degree in 2022 at the National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kiev, in the singing class of Svitlana Dobronravova. From April to July 2022 she studied at the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello in Venice. Since the 2022/2023 season, she has been studying opera and music theater at the Mozarteum in the class of Kai Röhrig and Rosamund Gilmore and in the singing class of Christoph Strehl. She has performed in the Ukraine, Italy and Austria. At the premiere of Helena Tulve’s oratorio “Visiones” in the Basilica di San Marco (Venice) in September 2022, she performed the role of the soprano. Her operatic repertoire includes the following roles: Verdi’s Gilda, Countess Ceprano and Page (Rigoletto); Nannetta (Falstaff); Annina (La Traviata), Britten’s Flora (The Turn of the Screw), Humperdinck’s Sandman and Taumännchen (Hansel and Gretel), Purcell’s Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Fourès Belinda (Elissa). In August 2023 she sang the role of Belinda at the Teatro dei Rinnovati, Siena, Accademia Chigiana.

Julia Maria EckesThe German-Spanish mezzo-soprano Julia Maria Eckes received singing lessons from the age of 11, which resulted in many successes, such as numerous prizes at the national “Jugend musiziert” competition and numerous scholarships. After graduating from high school, she first moved to Osnabrück, where she completed her training as a state-approved musical performer. In order to broaden her musical horizons, she studied classical singing at the Rostock University of Music and Drama in Fionnuala McCarthy’s singing class. Even before completing her bachelor’s degree, Julia made her opera debut as Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold in October 2021. In addition, she received important and inspiring impulses at master classes with Jan-Hendrik Rootering, KS Prof. Christiane Iven, Thomas Heyer, Wolfgang Klose, Katharina Kutsch with Pauliina Tukiainen, Peter Sefcik with Karola Theill, the couple Doreen De Feis & James Hooper, as well as recently at an interpretation workshop as part of the production “Hänsel & Gretel” with KS Brigitte Fassbaender. In January 2021, she was accepted as a scholarship holder in the registered association “YEHUDI MENUHIN – Live Music Now Rostock e.V.”, which organizes concerts in medical and social institutions throughout Germany. Since the 2022/23 season, Julia Maria Eckes has been studying for a Master’s degree in Opera and Music Theater in the class of Rosamund Gilmore/Florentine Klepper and Kai Röhrig. She will also receive vocal coaching from Zoryana Kushpler.

Donata Meyer-KranixfeldAustrian soprano Donata Meyer-Kranixfeld began her musical training at the age of seven at the Atelier des Arts Lilian Lambert in Brussels, Belgium. In 2012, she moved to Salzburg to receive in-depth vocal training at the ART-ORG St. Ursula Salzburg. As a student there, she took part in various projects and performances, including Tell me on a Sunday by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the “Long Night of Composers”. In 2012 she began taking private singing lessons with Dr. Yvonne Hartinger and in 2013 became a member of the Collegium Vocale of the Bachgesellschaft Salzburg and the Müllner Cantorey under the direction of Albert Hartinger. With the Collegium Vocale Salzburg, Donata sings the soprano solo parts in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the L’Orfeo Barockorchester under the direction of Michi Gaigg and Joseph Haydn’s Nicolaimesse. In 2014, she began studying singing with Albert Hartinger on the preparatory singing course at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. In 2017, she was accepted onto the bachelor’s singing course at the same university in Bernd Valentin’s class. During her studies, she took part in numerous opera class productions such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten and Les contes d’Hoffmann by Offenbach. Donata Meyer-Kranixfeld won the 38th Dušek Competition in Prague in 2018 and played a key role in the world premiere of the children’s opera Pippi Longstocking by Nils Urban Östlund in 2019.

Angelika Prokopp Sommerakademie der Wiener PhilharmonikerThe Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic promotes the training of young orchestral talents. For over fifteen years, the Vienna Philharmonic Summer Academy has been held in Salzburg during the Salzburg Festival. Orchestral playing of the highest quality depends on listening to each other, engaging with each other and flexibility between the musicians – this is what the Summer Academy aims to teach and hone through musical work ranging from chamber music in small groups to large orchestras. The unique course program for young musicians extends over several weeks during the Salzburg Festival and is divided into the areas of chamber music, chamber orchestra, orchestra and audition preparation. The participants are offered an extensive program of musical activities under the constant influence of musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with the focus on the Viennese sound and making music together in a wide variety of ensemble sizes. The members of the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy, who are selected in annual auditions, also provide the incidental music for opera productions at the Salzburg Festival. During the course, all participants receive individual tuition from members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. One of the main focuses of the Summer Academy is the orchestra module.

Opernstudio der Universität Mozarteum SalzburgThe Department of Opera and Music Theater is a beacon with special charisma and appeal. Every year, two opera classes of up to 15 highly talented students are prepared by renowned theater makers for the high demands of an international opera career. Four staged opera productions with orchestra are performed each year in a theater hall equipped to the highest technical standards. As part of an international cooperation with the Richard Strauss Festival and the Orchestra Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic, teachers and students from the Mozarteum University travel to Vienna and to the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Juliane Banse, Ariadne Christoph Strehl, Bacchus Bernd Valentin, music teacher Students of the Department of Opera and Music Theater Angelika Prokopp Orchestra Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic Kai Röhrig, musical director.