MENTORS 2022
Matthias Goerne
Matthias Goerne
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.
Juliane Banse
Juliane Banse
Her artistic breakthrough came at the age of 20 as Pamina in Harry Kupfer’s production of Die Zauberflöte at the Komische Oper Berlin. Her performance as Snow White in the world premiere of the opera by Heinz Holliger at the Zurich Opera House was described as unforgettable. Juliane Banse sang the title role in the revival of Jeanne d’Arc by Walter Braunfels in Cologne, and appeared in Zurich in the world premiere of Heinz Holliger’s opera Lunea. She gave her debut as Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), and sang the role of Elsa (Lohengrin) in Nantes and Anger. Song recitals and chamber music have always featured prominently in Juliane Banse's calendar, and she has sung at the Wigmore Hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal or the Schubertíada in Vilabertran. Among her recordings stand out Unanswered Love, featuring works by Reimann, Rihm and Henze, some of which were recorded for the first time and dedicated to her; Im Arm der Liebe with works by Braunfels, Korngold, Marx and Pfitzner or Hindemith's Marienleben.
Wolfram Rieger
Wolfram Rieger
Wolfram Rieger studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich with Erik Werber and Helmut Deutsch, and attended several masterclasses with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. He began teaching at the Munich Hochschule in 1991 while still a student. In 1998 he became a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin and regularly holds masterclasses throughout Europe and Japan. He is frequently invited to important venues and festivals around the world, such as the Feldkirch and Vilabertran Schubertiades, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Vienna Musikverein. He has accompanied Brigitte Fassbaender, Barbara Bonney, Juliane Banse, Michelle Breedt, Thomas Hampson, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Matthias Goerne, and Thomas Quasthoff, among others.
Alumni 2022
Ferran Albrich, baritone (Catalonia)
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).
Mar Compte, piano (Catalonia)
Born in Catalonia, Mar Compte began her musical studies at the Conservatory of Vic. She continued her training at ESMUC with pianist Jean-François Dichamp, members of the Casals Quartet, and Kennedy Moretti. Under the guidance of Francisco Poyato, she discovered the world of lied and later pursued the Master’s Degree in Lied Victoria de los Ángeles. She has received lessons from pianists such as Eldar Nebolsin, David Kuyken, Begoña Uriarte, and Alexander Kandelaki, and in the field of lied, she has participated in masterclasses with Malcolm Martineau and Simon Lepper. In the last three editions of the Life Victoria Barcelona Festival, she was selected as a Life New Artist. She is currently continuing her specialization in lied with pianist Marcelo Amaral at the Hochschule für Musik in Nuremberg, where her musical activity is centered.
María Díaz Coca, soprano (Andalusia)
Born in Seville (Spain) started her musical studies aged seven. She began her vocal studies at the Haute École de Musique de Genève; she currently studies at the Zurich University of the Arts towards a Specialised Music Performance masters. She covers a wide range of repertoire, having a special predilection for modern and contemporary repertoire such as Lachenmann, Berio, Aperghis and Ligeti among others. María has also received competition awards such as the audience prize at the Elvirissima Junge Stimmen Wettbewerb 2018 (Lucerne). María is currently a freelance member of the Zurich Opera House Choir. She also performs as a soloist in both international and national settings; exciting recent performances include a world premiere from Wolfgang Mitterer at the Salzburg Pocket Opera Festival and her debut as Monica in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium.
Mercedes Gancedo, soprano (Argentina)
The Argentine soprano studied singing at the I.S.A Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and continued her training in Europe with Eduard Giménez, Alicia Nafé, Teresa Berganza, Mirella Freni, Montserrat Caballé and Cecilia Bartoli, among others. She has sung the roles of Elle (La voix humaine), Prilepa (Pikovaia Dama), Pamina and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro) or Micaela (Carmen), at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Festival Castell de Perelada, the Theater am Delphi (Berlin), the Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, the Teatro Jovellanos in Gijon or La Farándula in Sabadell, among others. His career as a liederist has led him to sing at festivals and venues such as the Oxford Lieder, the Schubertiade, the Fundación Juan March, the LIFE Victoria, the Barcelona Obertura Spring Festival, the Palau de la Música Catalana or L’Auditori de Barcelona.
Jaesun Hong, piano (South Korea)
Jaesun Hong was born in South Korea and has been learning the piano since she was six years old. She is currently studying Specialised Master Music Performance at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with focus on Kammermusik - Liedgestaltung with Professor Christoph Berner. In the winter semester of 2022 she will start studying accompaniment at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. She has been working as a vocal and violin accompanist since her graduation, and in May 2021 she made her debut as a young duo at 'Liedrezital Zürich'. In 2015, she performed the opera The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti, which further developed her interest for opera accompaniment; she participated in the operas The Medium, also by Menotti (2020), Die Zauberflöte (2021) and last spring, La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc, the new opera Chronos by Matthias Müller and Zweimal Alexander and Messertränen by Bohuslav Martinů.
Constantin Zimmermann, countertenor (Switzerland)
Swiss countertenor born in 1999, he began performing in front of large audiences when he was only a boy soprano. Among others, he played the role of L’Amore (Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria) at the Zürich Opera House in 2014; that year he recorded the CD “Geistliche Lieder und Arien” by J.S.Bach with Ton Koopman. He studied singing at the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2020, he was awarded the first prize at the 49th Bundeswettbewerb Gesang in Berlin, and he has held a scholarship of the Basel foundation Friedl Wald since 2021. He studies under Prof. Juliane Banse as part of his Master’s degree in singing at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, where he has already appeared in two opera productions as L’Opinion publique (Orphée aux enfers) and Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea). He will embody a main role in Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at the Staatstheater Augsburg in 2023.
The biographies presented on this page were written at the time of the corresponding edition. Over time, the paths of the artists and professors have evolved, and therefore, the biographies here do not reflect the full extent of their current journeys.
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