Artists
Russian American Soprano, Erika Baikoff, is a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. As a Lindemann Young Artist, she sang the roles of Xenia (Boris Godunov) and Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro). From 2018 to 2020, Erika was a member of the Opéra National de Lyon Studio. Equally passionate about chamber music, she made her debut with Schubertíada and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, both of which she will return to in future seasons. Erika is the first-prize winner of the 2019 Helmut Deutsch Liedwettbewerb and the 10th Concours International de chant-piano Nadia et Lili Boulanger. Erika is an alumni of the Atelier Lyrique at the Verbier Festival, where she sang Musetta (La Bohème), and the Académie Vocal Residency of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in French Studies from Princeton University and a Master of Music from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Born in Biberach (Baden-Württemberg), she received her first singing lessons at a very young age. At the age of fourteen, she gave her first solo concerts and received a "Jugend musiziert" prize. She studied in Dresden and Leipzig; her training was complemented by masterclasses with Vesselina Kasarova, Rudolf Piernay, Christine Schäfer, and Hedwig Fassbender, among others. Eva Zalenga is the winner of the SWR Junge Opernstars 2023, a competition where she also received the Emmerich Smola Förderpreis and the Orchestra Prize of the Deutschen Radio Philharmonie. In 2023, she also won the International Music Competition Vienna. She recently debuted as Sophie (Werther) and Adele (Die Fledermaus) and is a member of the opera companies at the theaters of St. Gallen and Regensburg. Passionate about song, her debut CD will soon be released, featuring pianist Doriana Tchakarova, which includes recordings of premieres and rarely recorded romantic pieces.
Professor of cello at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, Fernando Arias combines his pedagogical vocation with an intense concert career. As a soloist, he has played with orchestras such as the Orquesta de Radiotelevisión Española, the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i National de Catalunya or the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallés, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, among other. Especially interested in chamber music, he shares the stage with artists as important as David Kadouch, Antje Weithaas, Anthony Marwood, or the Cosmos and Quiroga Quartets, and more usually with the VibrArt Trio, of which he is a member and founder. Fernando Arias studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, and completed his training at the Universität der Künste Berlin.
Born in 1990, he starts his musical studies as a cellist. He graduates at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold (Germany) He starts his singing studies in Germany in 2013 and afterwards he graduates suma cum laude in Barcelona at the Liceu Conservatoire He was selected in 2019 to participate in the Primer Palau competition in Barcelona and since then has had the opportunity to debut in some of the most recognized festivals in Spain, like the Schubertíada (Spain) o the Barcelona Spring Festival. He has also sung in concert halls such as Palau de la Música Catalana, Auditori de Barcelona, Teatro Calderón de Valladolid, Auditorio Príncipe de Asturias de Oviedo o Teatro Arriaga de Bilbao. In the lied genre he has performed works by Schubert (Winterreise), Schumann (Liederkreis and Dichterliebe), Beethoven (An die ferne Geliebte), Brahms (Vier ernste Gesänge), Debussy (Fêtes Galantes), Poulenc (Tel jour telle nuit) or Copland (Old American Songs).
Austrian baritone Florian Boesch is counted as one of today’s foremost Lieder interpreters with appearances at the most important concert halls. He has been an artist in residence at the Wigmore Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, Theater an der Wien and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. As a frequent guest on the concert platform, Florian Boesch has worked with leading orchestras and conductors, and he worked particularly closely with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. An equally compelling performer on the opera stage, Florian Boesch’s most recent productions included Handel’s Saul and Orlando conceived by Claus Guth at the Theater an der Wien. Major productions of his career include Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in Cologne and Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Salzburg Festival. Florian Boesch has been Professor of Lied and Oratorio at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna since autumn 2015.