Once again this year, the Cartoixa de Valldemossa will be, during the month of August, the unbeatable setting for the musical evenings dedicated to the piano and the music of Frédéric Chopin. The Chopin Festival returns with a line-up of internationally renowned pianists, who will perform on four Sundays in August.
The first date will be the 6th with the German Oliver Kern, and the second date to mark on the calendar is the 13th August, when the young Anton Gerzenberg will perform under the starry skies of the Serra de Tramuntana. The line-up of the Festival Chopin 2023 is completed with the concert on 20th August by Stanislav Khristenko.
On 27th August, Concert 4, with Albert Díaz at the piano, the soprano Irene Mas, the mezzo-soprano Marina Pardo, the tenor Antoni Aragón, and the instrumental group conducted by Vicent Balaguer and Smeral Spahiu, who, in addition to Chopin's work, will dedicate it to the composer Antoni Lliteres in commemoration of the 350th anniversary of his birth. In addition, this year works by Miquel Capllonch and a premiere by the composer Carme Fernández Vidal will be performed.
In addition, the poster for this year's festival includes the graphic work of the artist Ñaco Fabré, who will inaugurate an exhibition of painting, collage and sculpture at the Sala Capitular de la Cartoxia de Valldemosa, where it will remain open until the 27th.
All the performances will start at 9.30 p.m., and tickets can be purchased through the ticket.ib website, with prices of 30, 20 and 15 euros. The concerts will take place in the cloister and in the Cartoixa church in Valldemossa.
This year's edition of the Chopin Festival in Valldemossa is subsidized by the Department of Culture of the Council of Mallorca, the Balearic Studies Institute of the Government of the Balearic Islands, and the European Union with Next Generation funds.
OLIVER KERN
Graduated in piano, conducting and choral conducting at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart. He continued piano specialisation courses with Rudolf Buchbinder and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Musik-Akademie Basel and the Mozarteum Salzburg, taught at the Hanyang University in Seül, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg and since 2012 at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt.
He has won numerous awards and has performed in prestigious concert halls all over the world, such as the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Schauspielhaus in Berlin, the Musikhalle in Hamburg, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Auditorium Sta. Cecília in Rome, the Century Hall in Beijing, the Saitama Arts Centre in Tokyo and the Seoul Arts Center.
He has played as a soloist with important orchestras such as the Nova Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan, the Symphonic Orchestra in Seoul, the National Symphonic Orchestratra Simfònica in China, and the symphony orchestras in Berlin, Munich, Hannover and Vienna, with conductors such as Enrique Batiz, Dennis Russell Davies, Michael Stern, Lü Jia, Marc Soustrot, Gerard Oskamp and Dimitri Yablonski.
ANTON GERZENBERG
The young pianist Anton Gerzenberg, born in 1996, began his international career in 2021, when he won the First Prize at the 15th Géza Anda Competition in Zurich. He has performed on many important stages around the world such as the Tonhalle in Zurich, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, KKL in Lucerne, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, National Concert Hall in Taiwan, and with important orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Wiener Symphoniker.
Next season he will be resident pianist at the Vienna Konzerthaus, where he will perform in five concerts over the course of the season, as well as performing as a soloist with the Wiener KammerOrchester and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. He will also make his conducting debut with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and will tour South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico. He will tour Germany and Austria with the complete Ligeti Etudes on the occasion of the centenary of the composer's birth.
STANISLAV KHRISTENKO
Pianist and conductor Stanislav Khristenko was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where he gave his first recital at the age of 11 at the Philharmonic Hall. He later graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow before moving to the United States in 2008. Winner of more than 30 international piano competitions, he has performed as a pianist in some of the world's leading concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Philharmonie in Berlin, Seoul Arts Center, Prague Rudolfinum, Moscow Conservatory Great Hall, among others.
He has performed as a soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Phoenix, Puerto Rico and Richmond, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the symphony orchestras of Bilbao, Madrid and Tenerife, the Royal Philharmonic of Liège and the Rico and Richmond, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the symphony orchestras of Bilbao, Madrid and Tenerife, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège and the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He has founded one of the main classical music festivals in Ukraine, the KharkivMusicFest, as well as the Nova Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra. He has recorded for Steinway & Sons, Naxos, Oehms and Toccata Classics. He is a Steinway & Sons artist.
ALBERT DÍAZ
The concerts Albert Díaz has given throughout Europe, the United States, Canada and South America, in addition to his artistic career, have earned him the Estrella d'Or award for Professional Excellence. He has performed in venues such as the Place des Arts in Montreal, the Elebash Recital Hall in New York, the GAM in Santiago de Chile, the Seu de les Nacions Unides in Geneva, the Palau Reial in Warsaw, the Palau Foz in Lisbon, the Sala Alfred Cortot in Paris, among others. He has also performed at prestigious festivals, such as the Paderewsky Festival in Warsaw, the 35th Chopin w barwach jesienide Antonin Festival (Poland), the F. Chopin International Festivals in Valldemossa and Caserta, and the Festival of contemporary music in Chile.
Albert has performed as a soloist with the Deutsch-Französisches Kammerorchester, the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra and the Kammerphilharmonie Baden-Würtemberg among others. Among his various recordings, it is worth mentioning a CD of Chopin's works for piano for four hands, and a triple CD with the complete works for piano by the composer Romà Alís. Albert Díaz has been conductor at the Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears and is currently a tenured professor at this centre.
IRENE MAS
She began her musical and stage training by taking part in around fifteen opera productions at the Teatre Principal in Palma, her home town. She graduated in violin at the Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears and in singing at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu de Barcelona. She furthered her studies with teachers such as Wolfgam Rieger, Malcolm Martineau, Scholto Kynoch, Janet Perry and Nelly Miricioiu. She has won numerous International Singing Competitions such as the First Prize at the Les Corts International Competition, Second Prize Ex-Aequo and the Juventudes Musicales de España Prize at the "El Primer Palau" Competition and the Extraordinary Ferrer-Salat Foundation Prize at the Tenor Viñas Competition.
She has developed her career in Finland, Mexico, Bulgaria, England, England, Andorra, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France, India, Korea, etc. She collaborates with La Capella Reial (J. Savall), La Grande Chapelle (A.Recasens) and Los Músicos de su Alteza (L.A.González). This season she will be Resident Artist at the LIFE Victoria Lied Festival, and will make her debut at the Oxford Lieder Festival and at the opera season of the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
MARINA PARDO
Graduated from the Conservatori d'Oviedo, she was invited by Alfredo Kraus to extend her studies at the Escola Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid. She has performed with prestigious internationally renowned conductors such as Helmut Rilling, Jesse Levine and Pinchas Steinberg, among many others. He has performed with most of the Spanish orchestras and with the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic and the Dresdner Philharmonic, in venues such as the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Avery Fisher Hall in New York and the Mare Palatui in Bucharest.
Marina Pardo has also dedicated part of her repertoire to baroque and ancient music. She was a member of the ensemble Al Ayre Español, with whom she performed at the most prestigious European festivals of this genre (Herne, Utrecht, Libramont, Schleswig-Holstein, Societé Philharmonique de Bruxelles, etc. ) performing the baroque sarsuels Acis i Galatea and Júpiter i Semele de Literes, recording both for Harmonia Mundi, and winning the Spanish National Music Prize in 2005, among many other awards and recognitions. She is very interested in contemporary music and has premiered numerous works by Spanish composers. In 2012 she premiered Golijov's Ainadamar in Spain, an opera that she later repeated with great success at the Philadelphian Opera and at the Cesis Festival in Latvia (where the work was the Latvian Great Music Award as the best production of 2017).
ANTONI ARAGÓN
Born in Palma de Mallorca, he studied singing in that city. Rep classes of Lambert Climent, W. Hollweg, Juan Oncina, H. Crook, William Mateuzzi, Carmen Bustamante and Alejandro Zabala. He collaborates with different groups of ancient music, such as Capella de Ministrers, Capella Reial de Catalunya, Estil Concertant, Camerata Iberia and Ensemble Elyma among others. He has also performed with the Orquestra Barroca de Sevilla and the Orquestra Barroca de Salamanca, as well as with the group Studium Aureum.
He has participated in the opera seasons of the Teatre Principal de Palma in productions such as Bastien und Bastienne, Die Zauberflöte, L'italiana in Algeri, La Fanciula del West, Marina, La Sonnambula, Paquacci, Salome, La Madrilenya, Cosa Rara, Il mondo della Luna, Otello, Li Nozze di Figaro, Carmen, Turandot, Eugen Oniegin, etc. In the orchestral repertoire he has performed works such as the Magnificat, Oratori de Nadal and various Cantates and Passions by Bach, Missa de Santa Cecília by Gounod, La Missa de la Coronació, Requiem, Missa en do menor by Mozart, Les Estacions and La Creació by Haydn, El Messias i Judes Maccabeus by Haendel, El Retaule de Maese Pere by Falla, Les passions by Johan Sebastian Bach, Das Lied von der Erde by Mahler, Missa Solenelle and Stabat Mater by Rossini... He has been a singing teacher at the Conservatori de Música i Dansa de Mallorca since 1999.
INSTRUMENTAL GROUP
Vicent Balaguer (violin - conductor)
Smerald Spahiu (violin - conductor)
Clara Mascaró (viola)
Marc Alomar (cello)
Xisco Aguiló (double bass)
Joan Rodriguez (oboe)
Ferran Pisà (guitar)
Ferran Martínez (percussion)
Pedro Aguiló (harpsichord)