Marisol Montalvo, Ewa Kupiec, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz & Karl-Heinz Steffens
Biography Marisol Montalvo, Ewa Kupiec, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz & Karl-Heinz Steffens
Marisol Montalvo
The American soprano is among the most sought-after exponents of contemporary music working today. She is possessed of an extraordinarily flexible instrument, “brilliantly stratospheric” yet “sweet-voiced”, that has enabled her to achieve success in repertoire from Strauss to Boulez. A consummate, “unstinting” singing actress,she has been greatly acclaimed for identifying unconditionally with her characters.
As well as performing alongside many of the world’s most renowned conductors and orchestras, she has had the privilege of working closely with many of today’s leading composers, including Matthias Pintscher, Olga Neuwirth, and Wolfgang Rihm. Several have written roles especially for her, including Peter Eötvos (Sierve Maria in Love and Other Demons), Pascal Dusapin (Prothoe in Penthesilea) and Marco Stroppa (Olbia in Il Re Orso). Her affinity for contemporary music has led to regular engagements with ensembles including Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Intercontemporain, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Ensemble Remix and Ensemble Modern.
Although she has achieved success in a wide range of operatic repertoire, Montalvo is particularly associated with the title role of Berg’s Lulu. Following her debut in the part at the Opéra National de Paris, Le Monde described her performance as a true revelation: “The American soprano possesses real stage and vocal presence, and executes the exhausting role with incredible intensity”. Subsequently, Lulu has become the centerpiece of her stage work; she has performed it at houses including Deutsche Oper Berlin, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Teatro de la Maestranza, Theater an der Wien, Komische Oper Berlin, and at Theater Basel, in the acclaimed production by Calixto Bieto.
Outside the opera house, Montalvo has a particularly close working relationship with Christoph Eschenbach, who has been both a mentor and a regular concert partner throughout her career. Since conducting her Carnegie Hall debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, he has invited her to work with him alongside orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. Most recently, she performed the role of Sophie in a concert performance of Der Rosenkavalier with the National Symphony Orchestra under his baton at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
She has also worked with conductors including Daniel Harding, Vladimir Jurowski, Christopher Hogwood, Yuri Temirkanov, Bernhard Kontarsky, Sylvain Camberling, Sussana Mälkki, Lothar Zagrosek, and Sir Neville Marriner, and with orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, SWR Sinfonie-Orchestra, RSO Wien, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Bamberger Symphoniker. She has performed at houses including Opernhaus Zürich, Bregenzer Festspiele, Gran Teatro del Liceu, Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, Teatro Real de Madrid, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Theatre du Chatelet, Théatre de Geneva, La Monnaie de Munt, Opera de Monte Carlo, Lithuania National Opera, Polish National Opera and Opera Comique.
Ewa Kupiec
„Pure substance“, Ewa Kupiec is praised by Fono Forum, Germany’s leading magazine for classical music. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung certifies: “Kupiec plays with a rare mixture of spirit, a faultless technique, a complete understanding of musical texture and an ability to shape music with transparency and an impressive richness of colours. Her playing is brilliant but never obtrusive, full of atmosphere and subtly virtuosic.”
Ewa Kupiec regularly performed at the world’s leading festivals and with major orchestras, which in recent seasons have included Munich Philharmonic, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Royal Danish Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Orchestre de Paris. Conductors she worked with include Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Marin Alsop, Neeme Järvi, Ingo Metzmacher, Xian Zhang, Sakari Oramo, Semyon Bychkov, Giancarlo Guerrero, Herbert Blomstedt, Krzysztof Penderecki, Lothar Zagrosek, Gilbert Varga, Christoph Poppen, Andrey Boreyko and Marek Janowski. Renowned Polish maestro Stanislaw Skrowaczewski has initiated and supported an exceptionally fruitful musical collaboration between the two, and as such they have performed all over the world and, released in 2003, recorded Chopin’s piano concerti together.
Ewa Kupiec is a dedicated interpreter of contemporary music. Her Berlin Konzerthaus performance in 2005 of Schnittke’s First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra was the first performance of this work since 1964 and was released by Phoenix in 2008, together with other Schnittke works for piano and orchestra. Her recital and chamber music programs often include contemporary works, and different composers have dedicated pieces to her. As a result of this collaboration a CD “Conception” with works of R. Meyers and A. Bibalo was released in 2005.
2014 saw four special releases: Polish composer’s Andrzej Panufnik’s piano concerto for the complete recording of his œvre, together with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin for cpo (ICMA Special Achievement Award 2015), Grażyna Bacewicz‘ piano quintet arranged for piano and string orchestra for the Naxos label together with the Capella Bydgostiensis – awarded the prestigious Fryderyk Award in Poland (2015)
Among other numerous recordings are works by Szymanowsky (ECHO Klassik 1997) and Paderewski. For Sony, she recorded Władysław Szpilman’s music, known from the movie „The Pianist“.
2007 Haenssler released her recording of Janacek‘s solo works and 2010 saw the release of Żal, with solo works by Chopin and Schubert. In 2011, in cooperation with Deutschlandfunk, she published a CD with solo works by Kodály and Enescu (Solaris). 2012 saw the release of Chopin’s piano concertos and Nocturnes selection on the Australian ABC label, and 2013 the premiere recording of Lutosławski’s works for piano solo (Sony). in 2014 Chopin’s works for piano and cello with Johannes Moser (Hänssler), and piano quintets by Scharwenka and Dvorak with the Armida Quartet (Solaris).
She is giving masterclasses around Europe and has been a member of the Jury of renowned Competitions like ARD/ Germany, Sydney/Australia, Busoni/Italy, Beethoven/Bonn-Germany and Maj Lind/Finland.
