00 Great Hall Jihlava Thursday 27 May
| Gustav Mahler | "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" | |
| Claude Debussy | Prélude a l'apres-midi d'un faune | |
| George Gershwin | Songs | |
| Maurice Ravel | Boléro |
Eva Garajova - mezzo
Lars Grünwoldt - baritone
Luxembourg Sinfonietta, Marcel Wengler - conductor
Eva Garajova - mezzo
A graduate of the Conservatorie and the Bratislava Academy of the Performing Arts under the guidance of Hana Bandová-©tolfová, Eva Garaj continued her studies as a laureate of international competitions in Osimo (Italy), Stuttgart (Germany) and Buffalo (USA).
Already during her studies she was engaged in the performances of the Chamber Opera in Bratislava. She made her debut as Olga in Eugen Onegin in Banská Bystrica. In 1995 she became a soloist in the State Opera in Prague where she appeared in twenty roles, among others as Varvara, Carmen, Dorabella, Fenena, Olga, Alice, Maddalena, Rubria and Laura.
In 2000 she was awarded the Prize of the Masaryk Academy of Arts for artistic creative work as well as Mahler Prize of the European Union of Arts.
In June 2003 she appeared as a guest in a concert of a world-famous tenor singer Jose Carreras in Bratislava. Her repertoire included Spanish and Italian songs.
She often cooperates with a concert pianist M. Lap¹anský (songs) as well as with the Slovak and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (J. Køièka - Nordatlantic Songs, J. Haydn - Seven last Words), Capella Istropolitana, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc. She performs frequently with the State Philharmonic Orchestra Brno (H.Berlioz: The Childhood of Jesus, J. S. Bach: Kantata "Bereitet die Wege" BWV 132). In February 2004 she appeared with Ch. Mackerras and the State Philharmonic Orchestra Brno and sang a solo for mezzo-soprano in Janáèek Glagol Mass.
In May 2004 she sang a solo in Dvoøák Requiem and Dvoøák Song Recital (accompanied by M. Lap¹anský) in Great Britain.
She performed as a guest in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Rumania, Japan, the USA. As a singer of chamber music and vocal symphonic works she appeared in many Europian countries, in Canada, the USA and Bermuda.
Lars Grünwoldt - baritone
Lars Grünwoldt was born in November 1974 in Mecklenburg/Germany. He began his musical education at the age of five, receiving piano instruction from Camilla Bender, later from Karin Knöfel. At the age of 14 he was admitted to the special musical education class at the J. W. v. Goethe Gymnasium in Demmin, where he enjoyed a wide-ranging musical training, taking part in the concerts of the State Youth Choir under the direction of Stefan Richter. In 1995 he started singing lessons with Kammersänger Siegfried Eisenbach at the Rudolf Wagner Régeny Conservatory in Rostock. From 1996, Lars Grünwoldt studied at the new Academy of Music and Theatre in Rostock under the Welsh baritone Anthony Baldwin. Having obtained his intermediate diploma, he moved to the renowned Academy of Music Hanns Eisler in Berlin, where he studied under Professor Scot Weir, completing his diploma in February 2004.
In the course of his studies he participated in numerous master classes, held by, for instance, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Thomas Quasthoff and Rudolf Piernay in the context of the Stuttgart Bach Week. He attended the lied class of Professor Wolfram Rieger from 2001 to 2004.
In 2003 he was prizewinner at the International Voice Competition of the Schloss Rheinsberg Chamber Opera and participant in the first Rheinsberg Opera Workshop, and in 2004 prizewinner at the Podium of Young Vocal Soloists in Wiesbaden. Another distinction was participation in the production of Mozart’s opera "L’óca del cairo" initiated by the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin with graduates in the summer of 2004. In 2005 the singer was awarded a five-year scholarship by the "Live Music Now" foundation established by Yehudi Menuhin.
While still studying, Lars Grünwoldt built up a comprehensive concert and lied repertoire ranging from Bach and Handel to Schubert, Brahms, Fauré, Wolf, and Mahler, as well as Shostakovich, Barber, and Matthus. In 2000 he sang the role of Don Alfonso (Cosí fan tutte) for the first time in the Academy production. Other Mozart roles followed, like Allazim (Zaide) and Don Giovanni, as well as the Friend (Le pauvre matelot) by Darius Milhaud and Jago in Verdi’s Otello. Grünwoldt has also been engaged for many free productions, for example in the role of Aleko in the eponymous opera by Rachmaninov and that of Cesare Angelotti in company with such acclaimed soloists as Anda-Luise Bogza, Endrik Wottrich, and Hannu Niemelä in Puccini’s Tosca.
Among the roles sung by the bass-baritone as grantee of the Komische Oper Berlin was the principal role of Damon in "Pastorelle en musique" by Georg Philipp Telemann alongside Jochen Kowalski. During his studies, he appeared in opera productions at the Staatoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, the Berlin Chamber Opera, and the Theater Magdeburg. As member of the opera studio at the National Theatre of Luxembourg he sang the principal role in the first performance of "Virus Alert", an opera by the Belgian composer Jacqueline Fontyn. After completing his degree, he gave guest performances in 2005 as Schlemihl (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) at the Staatstheater Braunschweig and Leporello (Don Giovanni) at the Theater Kampnagel in Hamburg, upon which the Hamburg State Opera engaged him under production contract for "I tre indovinelli" by Detlev Glanert in 2006.
In the same year he gave his debut as Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Stadttheater Koblenz. This was followed in 2007 by the first performance of Lucia Ronchetti’s opera "Der Sonne entgegen" at the Theater Gelsenkirchen. During the 2007/2008 season he is to be heard in the role of Professor Hoggins in an opera by Mike Svoboda at the Stadttheater Bielefeld. At the Schloss Heidenheim Opera Festival 2008, Grünwoldt is singing the part of Kaspar (Der Freischütz) by Carl-Maria von Weber.
The bass-baritone has worked with directors like Claus Unzen, Michael von zur Mühlen, Michiel Dijkema, Susanne Knapp, Immo Karaman, Peter Konwitschny, Kay Kunze, Hans-Peter Lehmann, Kerstin-Maria Pöhler and Matthias Remus and with orchestras like the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Concerto Brandenburg, the Staatskapelle Braunschweig, the Brandenburg Staatsorchester, the Ensemble Resonanz (Hamburg), the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Berliner Sinfoniker, members of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Berlin Singakademie and the Singakademie Frankfurt. Work on a casual basis in the Berliner Rundfunkchor and the chorus of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden has brought him together with the conductors Daniel Barenboim (Staatskapelle Berlin), Marek Janowski (Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester) and Sir Simon Rattle (Berliner Philharmoniker).
Grünwoldt has performed on numerous occasions in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Nikolaisaal Potsdam. As soloist he has performed with the Berlin Singakademie and the Concerto Brandenburg (Creation/Haydn), the Brandenburg Staatsorchester Frankfurt conducted by Heribert Beissel (Tosca/Puccini), with the Bach Orchestra Hannover, which specialises in original performance practice (St. John Passion/Bach), and under the direction of the Freiburg Baroque soloist Torsten Johann (Messiah/Handel).
In 2006/2007 he was engaged for the Christmas Oratorio I-VI in Berlin Cathedral (Tobias Brommann), the B-Minor Mass in the Konzerthaus Berlin (Kerstin Behnke), Brahms’ Requiem in Greifswald Cathedral (Harald Braum) and the St. John Passion in Braunschweig Cathedral (Gert-Peter Münden). In 2007 he sang the solo part in the Verdi Requiem in the Berlin Auen Church under the direction of Jörg Strodthoff with members of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
Apart from his concert performances, he takes a particular interest in the lied. In 2007 he attended a master class given by the pianist Norman Shetler in Hamburg, and received a scholarship for the Summer Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Lied cycles like Schubert’s Winterreise, Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Wolf’s Italienisches Lieberbuch are an integral part of his repertoire. In the summer of 2006, he gave his debut at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as Count Peter of Provence "Die schöne Magelone" by Johannes Brahms. State Minister of Culture Hans-Robert Metelmann accompanied him as reciter. In 2007 he performed the cycle in the context of the Luxembourg City of Culture year accompanied by Gunther Emmerlich as speaker. He is also committed to the contemporary lied, giving first performances of the Huchel Lieder by the Leipzig composer Tobias Rank and works by the American composer Theodore Saunway, Berlin. In 2009 he will be giving the first performance of songs by Manolis Vlitakis based on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Another of his predilections is for chamber music: at a lieder recital in St. Petersburg the idea was born for a joint concert tour with the Rimsky-Korsakov String Quartet, which brought the Russian musicians to Germany in June/July 2008.
Luxembourg Sinfonietta
The Luxembourg Sinfonietta, the leading ensemble for contemporary music in Luxembourg, was founded in 1999 by its conductor Marcel Wengler. Ever since that time, it has endeavoured to make contemporary music accessible to a wider public and to present Luxembourg composers, particularly abroad. Its first opportunity to pursue this goal was the international festival “World Music Days 2000” held in Luxembourg and the World Exhibition in Hanover in 2000. Apart from a number of first performances, the Luxembourg Sinfonietta also plays the classics of the past century, as well as its own arrangements and orchestrations of existing works which thus attain a new dimension and importance.
In order to further establish Luxembourg as a European centre for musical innovation, the Luxembourg Sinfonietta has organized its own annual International Composition Prize since 2001. The number of works which have been specially composed for the Luxembourg Sinfonietta is in excess of 900.
Numerous invitations to international festivals underscore the significance of this ensemble, which has all the celebrated contemporary composers in its repertoire. The Luxembourg Sinfonietta has played in Germany, France, Switzerland, Romania and as part of the prestigious International Festival «World Music Days 2007» in Hong Kong as well as in Beijing and Chengdu on its successful China tour in the year 2008.
Marcel Wengler - conductor
Marcel Wengler studied at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels and was assistant for many years to Hans Werner Henze in the Musikhochschule in Cologne. He studied conducting under several persons, including Igor Markevitch and Sergiu Celibidache, the latter having had a great influence on him. Marcel Wengler won the first prize in the International Conductors’ Competition in Rio de Janeiro. As conductor, he has recorded over one hundred works for a variety radio companies, including many premieres. With the symphony orchestra of Radio-Télé-Luxembourg, he has recorded a CD series comprising works by contemporary composers.
His extensive repertoire covers the orchestral suites of the Renaissance as well as the music of our century, particular importance attaching to contemporary works by Ligeti, Boulez, Henze, Penderecki, Takemitsu as well as the classic composers of the twentieth century (Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Bartók, Janacek, Ginastera, Ives, Villa-Lobos, Blacher). Apart from regular symphonic concerts with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, he has conducted in England, France, Spain, Romania and Germany as well as in Lisbon, Moscow, Leningrad, Kazan, Beijing, Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro. In 1999, Marcel Wengler conducted the ensemble MusikFabrik NRW in a concert cycle forming part of the Festival Musik im Industrieraum; this cycle was devoted to the entire oeuvre of Edgard Varese.
As a composer, Marcel Wengler has so far written around eighty works of the most varied types, including symphonies and concertos as well as stage-, chamber- and ballet music. His compositions, which are published in New York, London and in Germany, are performed the world over. After a successful premiere, the musical play “Rex Leo” was presented in a new production in the Graz opera house. Marcel Wengler has composed successful music for films and conducted the recordings in Berlin, London, Cologne, Paris, Munich and Hamburg.
The main thrust of his activity as a composer since 1995 has been towards concertos for solo instrument and orchestra. He conducted the first performance of his concerto for violoncello with the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa in Lisbon, as well as his concerto for viola and orchestra with Garth Knox and the Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra. The violin concerto, dating from 1998, was selected by the jury for the “World Music Days 1999” in Romania and performed there as part of the festival. He composed a concerto for flute and orchestra under commission from the Orquestra Nacional do Porto and conducted the premiere in 1999. The first performance of the concerto for 4 percussionists and orchestra was given at the Echternach Music Festival in 2003. Marcel Wengler’s “The visions of James Ensor” for large orchestra was premiered in June 2006 by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and his work “The Magic Boat” commissioned by the “Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra” was first performed in 2007 as part of the “Hong Kong Arts Festival”.
Marcel Wengler is the director of the Luxembourg Society for Contemporary Music, which was founded in 1983, and was the artistic director of the “World Music Days 2000” which took place in Luxembourg for the very first time.
