Sarah Maria Sun in Berlin & Witten

On 11 & 13 April 2025 the soprano Sarah Maria Sun will sing songs by Kurt Weill such as It never was you, Lied des Lotterieagenten, Bilbao Song, Die Seeräuber Jenny celebrating the composer’s anniversary at the Konzerthaus Berlin under the baton of Iván Fischer. The Konzerthausorchester will furthermore play Hanns Eisler’s Suite No. 2 op. 24, Erwin Schulhoff’s Suite for Chamber Orchestra, Paul Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher (viola: Lawrence Power) and Weill’s Suite panaméenne. 

On 3 May 2025 the world premiere of Sarah Glojnarić‘s Guide to Reality will be presented at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik. This headphones-concert flips the concert scenario on its head, introducing a hybrid format that blurs art forms and detaches string quartet music from its historicity. The audience experiences a diverse mix of noisy, virtuosic rhythmic textures, electronic soundscapes, podcasts, covers ranging from Nirvana to Enno Poppe and re-sampled string quartet repertoire. Sarah Maria Sun as a conférencier, guides the audience through the performance, acting as their subconscious, confidante, enemy, and past. The Kuss Quartett will perform and Paul Hauptmeier & Martin Recker will be responsible for the sound-design and Anahí Pérez for the light-design.

(published on 31 March 2025)

Sofia Jernberg: World premiere in LA

Following her solo concert on 29 March 2025 at the Korzo Zaal in Den Haag that vocal artist Sofia Jernberg will perform in complete darkness on the occasion of the Earth Hour, she will premiere Chaya Czernowins NO! on 29 April 2025 in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Daníel Bjarnason will lead the LA Phil New Music Group and will also conduct his own composition Snow Songs in the US-premiere. Chaya Czernowin has written this piece exclusively for Sofia Jernberg‘s voice. Subsequently, No! will also be premiered at the Kölner Philharmonie, Philharmonie de Paris, the Wiener Musikverein as well as at NOSPR Katowice. This concert will be Sofia’s debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

(published on 19 March 2025)

THE PRESENT in Fribourg & Potsdam

The vocal ensemble THE PRESENT will present two very exciting programmes in concert:
On 22 March 2025, the ensemble will sing Yes-Songs - Lessons in tenderness with music by J. S. Bach, Reiko Füting, Carola Bauckholt, Lucia Ronchetti and Heinrich Albert in the series eclats concerts at the Museum for Art and History MAHF in Swiss Fribourg. The five singers will be Olivia Stahn and Hanna Herfurtner (soprano), Bernadette Beckermann (alto), Tim Karweick (tenor) and Felix Schwandtke (bass).

 On 27 March 2025, THE PRESENT will perform the extraordinary programme Cry Me A River, presenting Lieder and songs reaching from Franz Schubert to Justin Timberlake at the Nikolaisaal Potsdam in a scenic realization. This production has been premiered at the Neuköllner Oper Berlin as a music-performative reaction to the climate crises: The result is an evening about shedding tears over what has been lost, the ones who will be ceased and the water that will disappear. The most beautiful songs about weeping will be raised: Next to Schubert’s Gefrorne Tränen and John Dowland’s Flow my tears the ensemble will sing Helene Fischer’s Hinter den Tränen or Justin Timberlake’s Cry me a river i.a.. What will give comfort, is the music itself. The soprano duo Stahn and Herfurtner will be teamed up by Amélie Saadia (alto), Florian Hille (baritone) and Will Frost (tenor).

(published on 18 March 2025)

New with us: Sarah Defrise (soprano)

We are delighted to announce the new cooperation with Sarah Defrise and warmly welcome her to our family of artists. The Belgian soprano has quickly established herself as one of the most fascinating young vocal artists enjoying close working relationships with a wide range of contemporary composers. Her success as the Teenager in Jean-Luc Fafchamps’ Is this the end? at La Monnaie De Munt (Brussels) in 2021 marked the beginning of her international career. Important appearances and opera debuts followed, with a particular focus on modern repertoire and world premieres. She has been a guest at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Komische Oper Berlin, the MusikTheater an der Wien, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie and at the Teatro Real Madrid i.a..

The critics resumed enthusiastically:
Elected Young Musician of the Year in 2022 by the Belgian Union Press, the "Extraordinary, both in her vocal rendition and quasi-cinematographic performance” (Resmusica), “Sarah Defrise excels, generating a multitude of sound characters: rage, resentment, incomprehension, intensity and truth: Her voice can convey it all.” (Opera Online). 

At the Ligeti 100 Festival in 2023 in Budapest she performed Ligeti’s Aventures/Nouvelles Aventures with the UMZE Ensemble, his Mysteries of the Macabre and Requiem at Müpa with Concerto Budapest Orchestra to great acclaim. 

Her upcoming performance dates are:

8 April 2025, 19:00 & 22:00, Festival Archipel, Geneva
Programme: Natacha Diels follow/unfollow (world premiere)
Cast: Ensemble Contrechamps, Sarah Defrise (soprano)

4 May 2025, 15:00, Saalbau Witten, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik
Programme: Brigitta Muntendorf New composition for A.I. voice and orchestra (world premiere)
Cast: WDR Sinfonieorchester, Sarah Defrise (voice)

19, 22, 25 June 2025, 19:30
3, 11 July 2025, 19:30
Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin
Programme: Bernard Foccroulle Cassandra (2023) - Opera in 13 scenes with a prologue
Cast: Staatskapelle, Staatsopernchor, Anja Bihlmaier (musical direction), Marie-Eve Signeyrole (staging, video), Fabien Teihné (set), Yashi (costumes), Susan Bickley (Hecuba, Victoria), Katarina Bradić​ (Cassandra), Sarah Defrise (Naomi), Joshua Hopkins (Apollo, Angry Audience Member)​, Jessica Niles (Sandra) i. a.

(published on 17 March 2025)