Swedish soprano Lisa Larsson started her career as a flautist and studied singing in Basel. Her first engagement was at the Zurich Opera House, where she performed under a number of conductors including Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Franz Welser-Möst. Following her debut at La Scala in Milan in ›The Magic Flute‹ under Riccardo Muti, she swiftly developed her international opera career, in particular as a Mozart singer performing parts such as Susanna, Pamina, Zaide, Zerlina, Servilia, Ilia, Fortuna and Ismene; other roles included Marzelline, Anne Trulove, Ännchen, Eurydice, Adele, Adina, Oscar, Xenia, Tytania, Polissena and Morgana. She appeared at renowned European opera houses including the Bavarian State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Royal Danish Opera, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Leipzig Opera, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Royal Swedish Opera and the Theater Basel as well as at the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.
Lisa Larsson is also a remarkably versatile concert singer of international renown. In recent years she has constantly expanded her broad repertoire with works by Mahler, Richard Strauss, Brahms, Berlioz, Britten and Stravinsky, and has performed in a number of world premieres of contemporary works. Conductors she has worked with include Claudio Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, Daniel Harding, Adam Fischer, Mikhail Pletnev, David Zinman, Antonello Manacorda, Lawrence Renes, Massimo Zanetti, Louis Langrée, Douglas Boyd, Juanjo Mena, Christian Arming, Andrew Manze, Stefan Solyom, Vassily Sinaisky and Edo de Waart. Lisa Larsson has performed with leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic.
In the field of baroque music, she has often worked with leading conductors and their orchestras, including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood, Frans Brüggen, Andrea Marcon, Emmanuelle Haïm, Ton Koopman, Nathalie Stutzmann, Nicholas McGegan, Paul Goodwin, Martin Haselböck, Gottfried von der Goltz, Trevor Pinnock, Richard Egarr, Fabio Bonizzoni, Jan Willem de Vriend and David Stern.
Highlights of her 2014 | 2015 season include two world premieres of works dedicated to her by Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson: “Ich denke Dein…” for soprano and orchestra, commissioned by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and “Garden of Devotion” for soprano and string orchestra, commissioned by the Swedish ensemble Musica Vitae.
“Ich denke Dein…” will be first performed by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and conducted by John Storgårds who will also lead the Finnish premiere with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. The Dutch premiere will be with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under its chief conductor Marc Albrecht in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. More performances are planned for future seasons with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.
"Garden of Devotion" will be first performed on tour in Sweden by Musica Vitae and conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann. Further performances are scheduled with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Olari Elts as well as the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra under Stefan Solyom. More performances in future seasons are planned with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
Lisa Larsson will continue her many years of collaboration with Antonello Manacorda in performances of Beethoven’s 9th symphony in the Netherlands as well as Alban Berg’s “Seven Early Songs” and Mahler’s 4th symphony with the BBC Philharmonic. She will also sing the Berg cycle with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at the Prague Spring Festival and in Liverpool. Performances of Mahler’s 2nd symphony, conducted by Stefan Asbury, are planned for a tour in Holland. Other projects she is looking forward to are two new recital programmes with concerts in Italy together with Andrea Lucchesini and in Switzerland with Roland Pöntinen.
Recent additions to her substantial discography are two Challenge Classics releases: A Haydn album with the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam under the direction of Jan Willem de Vriend as well as Berlioz programme with the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Antonello Manacorda who is also the conductor of her next CD to be released on the same label in the autumn of 2014 and featuring Mahler’s 4th symphony combined with a selection of “Wunderhorn” songs by Mahler. In spring 2015 she will record Rolf Martinsson’s “Orchestral Songs on Poems by Emily Dickens” with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Manze for BIS Records. Her other recordings include Strauss‘ ›Four Last Songs‹ under Douglas Boyd, Mahler’s 8th symphony under David Zinman, the Mozart operas ›Don Giovanni‹ under Daniel Harding, ›Mitridate‹ under Adam Fischer, ›Il sogno di Scipione‹ under Gottfried von der Goltz, Händel‘s ›Jephta‹ under David Stern as well as numerous Bach Cantatas under Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Ton Koopman. With the latter she also recorded Bach’s Christmas and Easter Oratorio as well as the Magnificat.

Antonello Manacorda is currently Artistic Director of Kammerakademie Potsdam, a position he has held since 2010. He has been Principal Conductor of the Het Gelders Orkest in the Netherlands since 2011 – a position he bids farewell to in the 2018-19 season. He was Principal Conductor of I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan from 2006-10.

In addition to his two current positions, Manacorda also has guest conducting relationships which include the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and the Tapiola Sinfonietta. He has also worked with a number of other orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony.

In January 2015 Antonello Manacorda made his debut at the Salzburg Mozartwoche with the Mozarteumorchester in a performance of Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella followed by an appearance at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in a programme of Strauss and Stravinsky. In February 2014 he conducted a Beethoven Cycle over four consecutive days in Potsdam with Kammerakademie Potsdam, while in April he conducted a performance of Mendelssohn’s complete Midsummer Night’s Dream which was broadcast live from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Manacorda is currently engaged in recording a Schubert Symphony cycle for Sony Classical with the Kammerakademie Potsdam. The recordings have been met with high praise, including one being listed in Die Welt’s top ten CDs of 2013. He has also recently recorded a CD of Mahler’s 4th Symphony with Het Gelders Orkest and soprano Lisa Larsson, which was released in November 2014 by Challenge Records.

With a strong experience in opera as well as symphonic repertoire, in December 2014 Manacorda conducted Kammerakademie Potsdam’s Winter Opera production of Mozart’s La Betulia Liberata to great critical acclaim. He also has a long-standing relationship with Teatro La Fenice, and the director Damiano Michieletto, and will be returning to La Fenice in November 2015 to conduct The Magic Flute. Future opera collaborations include La Monnaie, Theater an der Wien, Komische Oper Berlin and Frankfurt Opera.

A founder-member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra Antonello Manacorda was its vice-president and concertmaster for eight years. A scholarship from De Sono in his home town of Turin allowed him to pursue his goal of becoming a conductor by enabling him to study with Jorma Panula for two years in Helsinki. From 2003-06 he was Artistic Director for chamber music at the Académie Européenne de Musique du Festival d’Aix en Provence.

Motivated by musical ambition, inspired by their public and bonded with their surroundings. That is Het Gelders Orkest! They share their passion for classical music with people from all ages in Gelderland and abroad. They make populair and less populair works and they make music with world famous solists, young top talents and big guest conducters. Their musicians grow and shine in the direction of chef-conducter Antonella Manacorda. He can make as a young 'old soul' the emotions melt with the orchestra like no one else can. Het Gelders Orkest want totouch as many as they can. Beside of organising symphonic concerts they have a bright scala of alternative musical meetings and adventural cross-overs, in the form of kidsconcerts, education- and amateurprojects, movies and workshops.