Artists
Born in la Garriga (Barcelona) in 1997, she started playing the cello at six years. She continued her studies at Leopold Mozart Zentrum from Augsburg University. She was artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo and is currently studying at Stauffer Center for Strings in Cremona. She has performed in festivals and concert halls such as Festival Pablo Casals 2017 in Prades, Supercello Festival 2018 in Beijing, L'Auditori an the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, or the Fundación Juan March in Madrid. As a soloist, she has performed with the Orquestra Camera Musicae, the Bruckner Akademie Orchester, or the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès. She has been awarded in several competitions, among them the Pablo Casals International Award (2016) and El Primer Palau (2020). Until 2018, she played a cello made by Marc Laberte (1921) which belonged to Pau Casals. She is currently playing a cello made by luthier David Bagué in 2019.
Rising star Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha won the Song Prize at the 2021 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and is a current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Most recently, Rangwanasha was awarded the 2024 Herbert von Karajan Prize. In 2024/25, Rangwanasha will perform, among others, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Verdi Requiem at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra, Rossini Stabat Mater with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra or Strauss Vier letzte Lieder with Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. Rangwanasha has also performed Barber Knoxville: The Summer of 1915, Mendelssohn Symphony No. 2, Mahler Das Klagende Lied, Tippett A Child of Our Time, and other roles including Élisabeth de Valois (Don Carlos) or Elettra (Idomeneo).
Matilda Sterby has been named one of OperaWire's Top Ten Rising Stars 2024 and has quickly established herself as one of the most prominent young Swedish singers. Her impressive career start includes performances at Volksoper Wien, Staatsoper Hannover, Malmö Opera and the Gothenburg Opera, performing the roles of Mařenka (The Bartered Bride) Micaëla (Carmen), Fünfte Magd (Elektra), Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), or Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte). She has also appeared in concert in, amongst others, Monteverdi’s Vespers and Beethoven's 9th Symphony. She completed her study at University College of Opera in Stockholm in 2019, and is the winner of Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition 2024, the Schymberg Award 2022, a finalist in the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's prestigious Solist Prize 2024, and a recipient of the esteemed Birgit Nilsson Scholarship 2024.
Matthias Goerne is regularly invited to the most important festivals and concert halls of the world, as the Wigmore Hall in London or the Carnegie Hall in New York. In his important career as an interpreter of lied he has been accompanied by pianists as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alfred Brendel, Christoph Eschenbach, Elisabeth Leonskaja or Alexander Schmalcz. Since making his debut as an opera singer at the Salzburg Festival in 1997 as Papageno (The magic flute), he has been invited to perform in the ROH of London, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Semper Opera House in Dresden, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York or the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. He has performed, among others the Wagnerian roles of Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) and the protagonists Lear of Aribert Reimann or Wozzeck of Alban Berg.
Swedish pianist Matti Hirvonen is regarded as one of the leading accompanists in Scandinavia, equally comfortable in all forms of chamber music. He has performed extensively with singers Elisabeth Söderström, Nina Stemme, Miah Persson, Iréne Theorin, Wolfgang Holzmair and Bo Skovhus, among many others. Hirvonen studied piano, accompaniment, and chamber music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Royal College of Music in Stockholm, and privately in London. A frequent guest at festivals throughout Europe, such as Edinburgh, Grafenegg, Aix-en Provence, and Schleswig-Holstein, Hirvonen performs at major venues such as the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Philharmonie Köln, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Luxemburg, Oper Frankfurt, Laieszhalle Hamburg, and Weill Recital Hall in New York. He has also performed extensively in Japan.