Biographies & programs
26.5.24
11:20
Isabelle Osenau
Germany
First Round
Alfonso Gonzalez Martinez
Spain
Program
Franz Schubert
Auf dem See D 543 (Goethe) - 1R
Im Frühling D 882 (Goethe)
Ludwig v. Beethoven
Vier Arietten und ein Duett, Op. 82
4. L’amante impaziente (Metastasio) - 1R
Goacchino Rossini
Péchés de vieillesse
Ariette ancienne ("Que le jour me dure!") (Jean J. Rousseau) - 1R
Henri Duparc
Extase (Lahor)
Emile Paladilhe
Psyché (Corneille)
Roger Quilter
Three Shakespeare Songs, Op.6
1. Come Away, Death
3. Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind
Gerald Finzi
Let us Garlands Bring" Op. 18 (Shakespeare)
1. Come Away, Come Away, Death
3. Fear no more the heat o’ the sun - 1R
5. It Was a Lover and His Lass
Erich W. Korngold
Four Shakespeare Songs, Op.31
1. Desdemona's song
2. Under the greenwood tree
3. Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Media
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Isabelle Osenau
Mezzo-soprano
Year of birth:
1998
Isabelle Osenau, born in Cologne, began her musical career at the age of 6 on the piano. Taught by the Russian concert pianist Tatiana Kozlova, she began performing at an early age. In the following years she won prizes in several renowned piano competitions within Germany and other European countries.
After graduating from high school and initially studying cultural studies in the Netherlands, classical singing became her primary musical interest. She then began her singing studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory, where she studied with Marcel Reijans and Charlotte Riedijk and completed her master's degree with honors in 2022. During her studies she was seen in various university opera productions, including Sesto in Handel's "Giulio Cesare" and Aminta in Mozart's "Il re pastore". She took master classes with Margreet Honig in the Netherlands and Claudis Visca in Austria. In addition, together with the Spanish pianist Alfonso González Martínez, she won the university's internal competition “Prix d'Harmonie” with a song program that deals with the setting of Shakespeare.
After completing her studies, she embarked on a career path as an opera choir singer, which first took her to the Cologne Opera. From the 23/24 season she is a permanent member of the opera choir of the Staatstheater Cottbus, where she also takes on solo roles, most recently as the noble orphan in “Rosenkavalier” and as Princess Linetta in Prokofiev’s “The Love of Three Oranges”.
Alfonso Gonzalez Martinez
Pianist
Alfonso Gonzalez Martinez, born in Noia (Spain), completed his bachelor's degree in piano solo at the Castilla y León Conservatory in Salamanca, where he studied primarily with Patrín García Barredo. He then obtained his master's degree at the Utrecht Conservatory (Netherlands) in the class of Klara Würtz. He completed further studies with Alexander Gold in Santiago de Compostela and with Stephane de May in Rotterdam. During his master's studies, he also joined the Institute for Early Music and developed his skills on the harpsichord there.
During his career he has performed at various festivals across Europe, including the “Festival internacional de Jovens Pianists” (Amarante-Portugal), “Músicas desnudas” (Madrid) and “Ciclo de novos intérpretes 2016 da Asociación Galega da Lírica” (Santiago de Compostela). Much of his work is also dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. He worked with conductors such as Oscar Colomina i Bosch, Kevin John Edusei and Javier Castro. He is a frequent guest of the Orquesta de RadioTelevisión Española in Madrid, where, among other things, he performed A. Schönberg's “Pierrot Lunaire” in collaboration with its soloists.
In 2023 his first CD “In Honor of Horák” was released in collaboration with the Japanese clarinetist Ken Kunita, which is dedicated to the bass clarinet repertoire.
For several years he has been a permanent accompanist at the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam and at the European School of Ballet.
In the field of chamber music, he forms the four-hand piano duo “NamasDuo” together with the Greek pianist Myrto Tzelisi. As a song accompanist, he regularly works with the Canadian-Dutch soprano Karin Timmermanns and the German mezzo-soprano Isabelle Osenau.