Auteur: Joan

Paul Valk (1969) studeerde orgel, koordirectie en kerkmuziek aan het Conservatorium en aan het Nederlands Instituut voor Kerkmuziek, beide in Utrecht, en behaalde aldaar zijn diploma’s. Daarnaast specialiseerde hij zich in piano, zang en orkestdirectie.
Zijn orgeldocenten waren o.a. Kees van Houten en Bernard Winsemius en leermeester voor koordirectie was Krijn Koetsveld.

American baritone Ben Kazez recently performed Theodora at Snape Maltings (England) under Dame Sarah Connolly and Christian Curnyn, Bach’s Hercules at Petit Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona) under Václav Luks and Shunske Sato, Vivaldi’s Gloria with Bach Collegium San Diego, and Messiah at St John’s Smith Square (London). He has also sung major works of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bach, including 35 Bach cantatas.

In the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Ben has sung at the Salzburg Festival, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Chapelle Royale de Versailles, Teatro La Fenice, Westminster Cathedral, and Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms). In Italy-based Ghislieri he has sung at Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and in 2021–22 he joins Apollo’s Fire.

Ben’s 2021–22 season includes Schumann’s Dichterliebe in San Francisco, French cantatas in Switzerland, Fauré Requiem in California, Messiah with Collegium Cincinnati, and Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit with Bach Collegium San Diego.

During the pandemic lockdowns, Ben created a vocal repertoire search tool that has been featured by music libraries at Juilliard, Royal Academy of Music, Stanford, and UC Berkeley.

Ben spent the first five years of his career creating mobile apps that the New York Times called “brilliant.” He became a Britten–Pears Young Artist in 2016 and earned a master’s degree from London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2018. He is fluent in French and Italian.

American-Dutch soprano Katharine Dain performs opera, chamber music, orchestral repertoire, and oratorio on international stages and is a probing curator and collaborator on many kinds of creative projects. Highlights of recent seasons include a debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Antony Hermus in the premiere of a commissioned work by Bram Kortekaas, Mozart Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and the Armel Opera Festival, orchestral song cycles of Dutilleux and Berlioz with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Bancroft, and songs of Berg and Zemlinsky arranged and conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw. Dain’s 2020 album Regards sur l’Infini with pianist Sam Armstrong, featuring Messiaen Poèmes pour Mi and songs by Debussy, Delbos, Dutilleux, and Saariaho, was widely praised (“an extraordinarily polished and thought-through disc … glowing” —The Guardian), and her performance in the the Clermont-Ferrand International Competition, called a “revelation” by Diapason, led to her debut as Konstanze in Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the opera houses of Clermont-Ferrand, Avignon, Rouen, Massy, and Reims.

Increasingly known for her ease in contemporary and twentieth-century music, Dain first appeared with the Dutch National Opera in Claude Vivier Kopernikus and has since revisted the opera in North and South America. In the 2021-’22 season, she will be both singer and co-creator (with conductor Manoj Kamps, director Lisenka Heijboer Castañón, and Asko|Schönberg) on a new production for the DNO’s Opera Forward Festival. She works frequently with Asko and other ensembles known for experimental and multidisciplinary projects, and she is often called for jump-ins of unusual concert repertoire, which has led to invitations at the Concertgebouw’s Zaterdagmatinee Kleine Zaal recital series, the Holland Festival, and the West Cork and Aldeburgh Festivals (among others) in works by Andriessen, Gubaidulina, Korngold, Marx, Nono, Orff, Ravel, Shostakovich, Tavener, and van de Putte.

Dain is equally at home in oratorio; some favorite past performances include Matthäus-Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music and the Choir of King’s College Cambridge, Messiah in Carnegie Hall, Mozart Requiem with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Stravinsky Les Noces with the New York City Ballet, and Brahms Requiem with Cappella Amsterdam. A passionate promoter of chamber music and song, Dain has co-founded several ensembles, including Damask Vocal Quartet, whose 2018 album O schöne Nacht, featuring music of Brahms and his contemporaries, won France’s Choc de Classica award. She has performed with the Quiroga, Ragazze, Navarra, Van Brugh, Carducci, Callino, and Momenta string quartets and is a frequent guest on international chamber music festivals and series.

Dain holds degrees from Harvard University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Mannes College of Music, and she currently lives in Rotterdam.

Bram Trouwborst (1977) studeerde na zijn middelbare schooltijd eerst Geschiedenis aan de
Universiteit Utrecht en later Ruslandkunde in Leiden. Pas veel later – in 2011 – besloot hij om een
conservatoriumstudie te beginnen. Van 2011-2013 studeerde Bram Oude Muziek in Tilburg bij Ildiko
Hajnal, waarna hij in 2013 werd toegelaten tot de Master ‘Advanced Vocal Ensemble Studies’ aan de
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Zwitserland. Deze Master rondde hij in 2015 ‘met distinctie’ af.
Momenteel wordt hij begeleid door Geert Berghs.

Als solist treedt Bram voornamelijk op in oratoria, passies en cantates uit de Franse, Duitse en
Italiaanse barok. Daarnaast heeft hij een grote voorliefde voor het polyfone ensemble-repertoire uit
de veertiende, vijftiende en zestiende eeuw. De vaste ensembles waar hij medewerking aan verleent
(Seconda Pratica, Cantores Sancti Gregorii, Hemony Ensemble en Ensemble Hieronymus)
specialiseren zich dan ook op dat gebied. Als freelance koorzanger is Bram onder andere werkzaam
voor het Laurens Collegium, het Helsinki Chamber Choir, Consensus Vocalis en het Nederlands
Kamerkoor.