Biographies & programs
27.5.24
19:00
Jessica Harper
Australia
Anna Alvizou
Greece
Program
Franz Schubert
Auf dem See D 543 (J.W.v.Goethe) - 1R
Goachino Rossini
Soirées musicales
La Promessa "Ch'io mai vi possa amare" (Pietro Metastasio) - 1R
La Partenza "Ecco quel fiero istante" (Pietro Metastasio)
Robert Schumann
Myrthen, Op.25
1. Widmung (Friedrich Rückert)
Franz Liszt
Tre sonetti di Petrarca, S 270
1. Pace non trovo
Henri Duparc
Mélodies
1. L'invitation au voyage (Charles Baudelaire) - 1R
Ivor Gurney
Five Elizabethan Songs
3. Under the Greenwood Tree (William Shakespeare) - 1R
4. Sleep (John Fletcher)
Richard Strauss
Drei Lieder der Ophelia, Op.67 (W.Shakespeare/ K.J. Simrock)
1. Wie erkenn' ich mein Treulieb
2. Guten Morgen, 's ist Sankt Valentinstag
3. Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre bloss
Emile Paladilhe
Psyché (Pierre Corneille)
Media
Jessica Harper
Soprano
Year of birth:
1990
Australian soprano Jessica Harper graduated summa cum laude with a Postgraduate Concert Soloist Diploma from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp in 2022 and holds a Bachelor of Music Performance with First Class Honours from the Australian National University. She made her debut at the Semperoper Dresden in the new opera chasing waterfalls in 2022 in the principal role of Schein/ Ego Fluens. Jessica’s other repertoire includes Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Casilda (The Gondoliers), Lisa (La Sonnambula), Mrs Norris (Mansfield Park) and the title role in Ben Hoadley’s Miss Brill (written for Jessica). Jessica held the Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship with the Melba Opera Trust in 2018.
Equally at home with concert repertoire, Jessica jumped in at the Statstheater Magdeburg to sing the soprano solo in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony in 2022. She has performed the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Johannespassion (for national broadcast on Australia’s ABC Classic FM), and several other major oratorio works.
Jessica’s concert repertoire includes extensive programmes of art song, and she has given recitals in regional NSW, Sydney, Antwerp and other European cities, as well as attending Lieder masterclasses with acclaimed musicians such as Malcolm Martineau, Maciej Pikulski, Hans Eijsackers and Thomas Hampson. Jessica and her collaborative partner Anna Alvizou, won the prize for ‘best interpretation of the commissioned piece’ (Sensation, Martin Fondse - prize awarded by the composer) at the International Lied Festival Zeist Young Artist Platform in 2023.
Jessica has won, come second place or been a finalist in every Australian singing competition. She has been a Semi Finalist in several acclaimed international competitions, including the Glyndebourne Cup (2020), the Tenor Viñas Singing Competitin (2021), the Éva Marton a competition (2021), The Internationaler Mozart Wettbewerb (2023) and was awarded second prize in the International Rita Gorr Competition in Ghent (2022).
Anna Alvizou
Pianist
Anna Alvizou was born in Greece. She has studied Piano Performance with Lambis Vassiliadis at the Ionian University, from where she has graduated with a Bachelors Degree with the highest grade. She continued her studies in Germany, where she obtained a Masters Degree in Piano Performance and a second Masters Degree in Lied accompaniment, from the class of Peter Nelson at the Musikhochschule Trossignen, both with the highest grade.
She emphasized further in Lied and Opera repertoire with pianists Jeanne-Minette Cilliers and Aaron Wajnberg at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp where she has also worked as a singers’ accompanist.
She has participated in numerous masterclasses, with some of the world’s leading artists in the genre of Lied, like Elly Ameling, Malcolm Martineau, Joseph Middleton, Roderick Williams, Hans Eijsackers, Robert Hall, Maciej Pikiulski, Iain Burnside etc.
In 2022 she has been awarded the prize of the ‘’best Lied pianist’’ of the International Triomphe de l’art competition in Brussels, in the Lied duo category. Together with soprano Jessica Harper, they were Young Artists of the International Lied Festival Zeist, where they were awarded the prize of the best performance of the compulsory piece of the competitive section of the program.
Anna is pursuing a freelancing career as a young Lied-pianist. Future engagements in 2023-2024 season include concerts in Belgium, the Netherlands and Greece with various artists and in organizations like the Antwerp Lied Festival among others.