The Croatian mezzo-soprano Dunja Vejzovic began her career at he Zagreb National Theatre. From 1971 to 1976 she was a member of the Nürnberg Opera, and to 1980 of the Opernhaus Frankfurt, where she appeared in principal roles such au Carmen, Venus Tannhäuser, Dido Dido and Aeneas, Klytemnestra Elektra, Azucena Il Trovatore, Marie Wozzeck, Amneris Aida, Gräfin Geschwitz Lulu and Dalila Samson et Dalila. At the Bayreuth Festival she portrayed Kundry Parsifal during three seasons und made her Metropolitan debut as Venus with James Levine conducting, Herbert von Karajan engaged her to appear in the Salzburg Festival, where she sang Kundry in the 1980/81 season and Ortrud Lohengrin in 1984. In 1982 she debuted a the Teatro alla Scala as Didon Les Troyens conducted by Georges Prêtre. She also appeared there in Suor Angelica (la Zia Principessa) and Der Fliegende Holländer (Senta) amongst other roles. She worked with Robert Wilson, in whose productions she sang the role of Alceste, the role of Kundry and Fisherman/Angel in Zeami’s Hagoromo. Dunja Vejzovic has also appeard in Monte Carlo (Brünnhilde Die Walküre), Carnegie Hall (Verdi Requiem conducted by Lorin Maazel), Barcelona (Hérodiade, with Montserrat Caballé and Jose Carreras), and Vienna Lohengrin with Plácido Domingo conducted by Claudio Abbado, Wozzeck, Der Fliegende Holländer, Parsifal and Fierrabras. Her repertoire also includes Eboli Don Carlo, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Abigaile in Nabucco, Adalgisa in Norma. She has sung under conductors such as Carlos Kleiber, Riccardo Muti, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Metha, Giannandrea Gavazzini, Nello Santi, Eugen Jochum and Armin Jordan. In 2004 she bade farewell to the stage as Charlotte Werther in Zagreb. Dunja Vejzović has twice won the PRIX Fondation Fanny Heldy for her recording of Kundry and of Ortrud. After teaching at Academia in Zagreb and Hochschule in Graz, she was appointed at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart 2000. The German government are shortly to award her their Federal Cross of Merit.
Canadian soprano Edith Wiens embraces a vast repertoire from the baroque to the contemporary. She has collaborated with the world’s foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Dresdner Staatskapelle, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and the Orchestre National de France. She has sung under such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Bernhard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Sir Georg Solti. Edith Wiens has been warmly welcomed at the Salzburg, Tanglewood, Dresden and Vienna Festivals as well as at the London Proms. Her operatic appearances include principal Mozart roles at Glyndebourne, La Scala, De Nederlandse Opera, the Santa Fé Opera and the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires. Especially renowned as a Lieder singer, she has given recitals in London’ Wigmore Hall, the Wiener Musikverein and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. A recipient of both the Grammy and Diapason d’Or Awards, her discography includes Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Strauss as well as Zemlinsky’s Lyrical Symphony. Edith Wiens is an Officer of the Order of Canada and is Professor of Voice at the Hochschulen für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg and München.
The Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus is regarded as being one of the most impo rtant singers of his generation and belongs to the great Russian tradition of baritones and basses that was launched by the legendary bass Fyodor Chaliapin. His vocal technique, stage presence and, primarily, his vivid performances have made Sergei Leiferkus into one of the baritones most in demand at this time. His operatic roles include Eugene Onegin, Mazeppa, Klingsor Parsifal, Pizarro Fidelio, Don Carlo La forza del destino, Scarpia Tosca, Escamillo Carmen and Simon Boccanegra. He has appeared frequently at the ROH Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra Bastille, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera and De Nederlandse Opera, as well as at the Edinburgh, Bregenz, Glyndebourne and Salzburg Easter Festivals. He has also appeared with orchestras such as the London Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra under major conductors including Claudio Abbado, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta and Seiji Ozawa. Sergei Leiferkus has given memorable song recitals at various international venues and masterclasses all over the world.
Dutch tenor Hein Meens studied piano and voice at the Conservatory of Maastricht, gaining national recognition with his interpretation of the Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passions. He was awarded the Prix d’Excellence for solo performance and won the International Vocal Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch in 1973. He also received the Zilveren Vriendenkrans from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Hein Meens works as voice teacher and oratorio coach at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He made his debut as a conductor with the Amsterdam Bach Consort in 2002 and conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the choir and orchestra of the Conservatory of Amsterdam in 2005 as well as being guest conductor for Haydn’s Die Schöpfung in 2006. Hein Meens was appointed conductor of the Westerkerk Choir and the Bach Orkest in Amsterdam on 1 October 2005. In 2006, he sang the main role in the world premiere of Alzheimer, a music theatre piece by Chiel Meijering and Bert Keizer.
Lenore Rosenberg is associate Artistic Administrator of the Metropolitan Opera, where she was also director of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program of the Metropolitan Opera for five years. Lenore Rosenberg has served on international juries for the Francisco Viñas International Singing Contest in Barcelona, the Rimsky-Korsakov Competition in St. Petersburg, the Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballé, in Andorra and the Concorso Internazionale di Canto Renata Tebaldi Competition in San Marino. She has also been music administrator of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston. Lenore Rosenberg has degrees in voice from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her previous administrative duties in the arts have included positions with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Memphis, Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland and Hartford Chamber Orchestra.
Ivan van Kalmthout played violin in the Utrechts Student Orchestra and was trained in business administration at the University of Nijenrode. He was a member of the Maecenas art society during his studies and was presented with the Nijenrode Communication Award. He worked for the Pieter Alferink agency in Amsterdam at the start of his career and was then asked by Marc Clemeur, to join the artistic planning team of the Flemish Opera in Antwerp. Albin Hänseroth, the Intendant of the Hamburg State Opera at that time, then invited him to Hamburg as head of artistic planning there. After three years of responsibility for the day-to-day running of the Hamburg State Opera he became assistant artistic director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, working with Joan Matabosch on the house’s long-term planning. Ivan van Kalmthout has been a member of the jury for the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and for the Second International China Singing Competition in Beijing.
Photo: Hans Hijmering
Hein Mulders is currently Artistic Administrator at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam. He studied art history at the École du Louvre and French at the Institut Universitaire Catholique in Paris, subsequently studying art history, archaeology, Italian and musicology at the University of Amsterdam as well as piano at the Utrecht Conservatory. He was then appointed assistant managing director to a Dutch artists’ agency, this position being followed by a period of five years as orchestral manager of the Dutch National Youth Orchestra, during which time he also wrote about opera and produced programmes on opera for the Concertzender radio station. He was appointed casting officer to the Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent in 1995; he was appointed head of artistic planning and casting in 1997 and remained there until 2006. In the same period he was a member of the jury and the board of Opera Studio Vlaanderen. Hein Mulders has also been a member of the jury for various international singing competitions in Spain (Barcelona and Pamplona), Italy (Rome), Albania (Tirana) and Canada (Montreal).
Hans Hierck studied Musicology at the Conservatory of Utrecht. During his studies he began publishing articles and served as music reporter for the Utrechts Nieuwsblad and de Volkskrant. In 1975, when the classical radio station Hilversum 4 was initiated he was appointed producer/director with the Dutch broadcasting organisation NOS. In 1980 he was appointed General Manager of the Gelders Orkest, where he was responsible for both artistic and managerial policy. After a period of 15 years he left the orchestra and was awarded the Commemorative Medal of the province of Gelderland and the Silver Medal of the municipality of Arnhem. Hans Hierck has been active in the world of music in various managerial positions, among others for the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Europäischer Chorverbände, the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst, Raad voor de Kunst, the international festival for contemporary music November Music, the Nationaal Jeugdorkest, the Nederlands KamerOpera Festival, and the Hans Vonk Foundation. In 2005, Hierck was inducted as an officer into the Order of Orange Nassau for his outstanding accomplishments in music in Holland.
