Artist(s)

Cora Burggraaf - mezzo soprano

The Dutch mezzo soprano Cora Burggraaf graduated with distiction at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague in 2002. She pursued her vocal studies in London at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. She also studies with Margreet Honig.

She has been the recipient of many prizes including the 2009/2010 ECHO Rising Star Award, the 2006 Elizabeth Everts Prize, the second prize in the International Vocalist Competition Den Bosch 2004, the 2003 Maggie Teyte Prize and the Miriam Licette Scholarship. Her studies in London were funded by the Dutch Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

In opera, Burggraaf has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, the Royal Opera House in London (for which she was awarded ‘Most Promising Newcomer of the Year’ by The Observer), San Francisco Opera, Welsh National Opera, The Netherlands Opera, Garsington Opera, Opéra de Bordeaux and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, BBC Proms and the Gergiev Festival. Further engagements include her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and return to the Salzburg Festival and The Netherlands Opera.

She recently made her acting debut when she appeared with Theatre Artemis, and in the solo performance Ophelia with OT Theater Rotterdam. In this show she combined songs of Strauss and Chausson with spoken words by the eminent Dutch writer Bernlef.

She has worked with celebrated conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Emmanuelle Haïm, Marc Minkowski, Seiji Osawa, Jaap van Zweden, HK Gruber, Steuart Bedford, Phillippe Herreweghe, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Frans Brüggen, Neeme Järvi and Peter Eötvös.

Cora Burggraaf is a noted recitalist and appeared in major concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, and the Frick Collection New York. On her ECHO Rising Star tour she has performed at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie in Cologne, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, in Brussels, Salzburg, Stockholm and Athens.

Simon Lepper
Simon Lepper was educated at King’s College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He is currently professor of piano accompaniment at the Royal College of Music and teaches at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He is an official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

As a student, Simon won several awards for piano accompaniment including the Gerald Moore Award, the Geoffrey Parsons Award as well as the accompanist prizes in the Kathleen Ferrier, Maggie Teyte, Richard Tauber and Royal Overseas League competitions.

He has performed at venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, Auditorium du Louvre, Concertgebouw, Mozarteum, Musee d’Orsay, Cologne Philharmonie, Verbier Festival and BBC Proms.

Simon specializes in vocal accompaniment and has given recitals with singers including Nicole Cabell, Karen Cargill, Allan Clayton, Malin Christensson, Andrew Kennedy, Angelika Kirchschlager, Sally Matthews, Mark Padmore, Dame Felicity Palmer, Joan Rodgers and Elizabeth Watts.

Recording highlights include Debussy Songs with Gillian Keith on Deux-Elles, Strauss Songs with Gillian Keith on the Champs Hill Label, Warlock Songs with Andrew Kennedy on Landor Records and Feldman, Zimmerman, Xenakis and Schoenberg with violinist Carolin Widmann on ECM. His recording with Carolin Widmann received both a Diapason d’or and the German Record Critics’ Award 2010 in the chamber music category.

Future performances include recitals with Malin Christensson, Sally Matthews and Karen Cargill at the Wigmore Hall, a European recital tour with Carolin Widmann, a Swedish recital tour with Malin Christensson as well as recitals with Mark Padmore, Joan Rodgers and Dame Felicity Palmer.

Liza Ferschtman
Liza Ferschtman is recognized as one of the most significant artists of her generation. Her performances are known for their passionate and at the same time intellectual qualities. In recent seasons Liza Ferschtman has performed with all the major Dutch orchestras, such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, as well as Orchestre National de Belgique, La Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, the Prague Philharmonia, Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Noerkopping Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Radio Orchestra, Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchester, Orquestra Nacional de Porto, Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra and the Israel Symphony Orchestra; she has worked with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Lev Markiz, Yakov Kreizberg, Lawrence Renes, Jaap van Zweden, Frans Brüggen, Ed Spanjaard, Thierry Fisher, Mendi Rodan, Christoph von Dohnányi, Tatsuya Shimono and Shlomo Mintz.

As a daughter of Russian musicians, she started playing the violin when she was 5 years old and received her first violin lessons from Philipp Hirschhorn. Attending master classes with Yvry Gitlis, Igor Oistrach and Aaron Rosand at a very young age, her extraordinary talent was discovered immediately. Until 1998 she studied with Herman Krebbers at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, after which she also worked with Ida Kavafian at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and David Takeno in London.

As Artistic Director of Holland’s most important chamber music festival, the Delft Chamber Music Festival, Liza Ferschtman is also a passionate chamber musician. She performs regularly in France, Belgium, Germany, UK, Russia, the US, Switzerland and Austria, and at festivals such as Ravinia festival in Chicago, West Cork Festival, Risor Festival and Prussia Cove in Cornwall. In April 2006 she made her New York recital debut with Inon Barnatan. The concert was received by such great critical acclaim that they were immediately re-invited two years later, the same season in which she made her Washington concert debut. Liza is a regular guest at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam: next to performing all Beethoven Sonatas she also had a carte-blanche at their Summer series. Future engagements include; performing all Beethoven Sonatas in Italy, recitals in her home country The Netherlands as well as abroad of which a.o. a tour with the Auryn Quartet and Inon Barnatan. Performances with orchestras include: Orchestre chamber d’Auvergne, the Radio Filharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Concertverein, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sonderjyllands Symfonieorchestra, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam and a tour with the Orchestra of Padova e Veneto with Dmitri Sitkovetsky. She will appear at festivals such as her own Delft Chamber Music Festival, Brno Festival, Festival Saló, West Cork, Kempten Festival, Burghofspiele, Montreal Festival, Rolandseck Festival and many more.

Her debut solo CD, with works from a.o.,Debussy, Poulenc and Tchaikovsky was made with pianist Bas Verheijden. Her second CD, with pianist Inon Barnatan, and was released in 2007 by Challenge records. Early 2010 she released her Bach and Ysayë solo-CD which was received with great critical acclaim by Strad Magazine. In 2006 Liza Ferschtman received the Dutch Music Award 2006, which is the highest distinction awarded to musicians in the Netherlands.

Composer(s)

Press

Burggraaf has a dominant voice, warm and expressive
Luister, 13-5-2013