Justyna RECZENIEDI, soprano
Her adventure with music started at the early age of 6 with violin classes at Emil Mlynarski elementary music school in Warsaw. She continued violin studies at Karol Szymanowski Music High School, receiving in 1998 instrumentalist’s and solo singer’s diploma. From 1999 attended the Vocalist’s Faculty of Frederick Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and graduated with first class honours from Zdzislawa Donat’s class.
Master classes:
Kaludi Kaludov (Varna 2002, Cieszyn 2003), Helena Lazarska (Salzburg 2002, Duszniki Zdroj 2003), Sylvia Geszty (Warsaw 2001, 2002), Ryszard Karczykowski (Duszniki Zdroj 2002), Alison Pearce (Warsaw 2000), Alberto Zedda
(Warsaw 2003), Christiane Hampe, Christian Elssner (Wroclaw 2002), Ileana Cotrubas (Nowy Sacz 2005) Teresa Zylis-Gara (Radziejowice 2005, 2006)
Achievements:
2nd prize at the 1st Opera Singers Competition for young sopranos in Busko Zdroj (June 2003)
3rd prize at the 18th International Nico Dostal Operetta Competition in Vienna (October 2003)
Special prize for the best czardas at 1st Iwona Borowicka Operetta Competition in Cracow (November 2004)
First appearance on stage as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Warsaw Chamber Opera.
Participation in the operas:
W. A. Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Bastien und Bastienne, Die Zauberflöte, Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots, J. Haydn Der Apoteker, J. Strauss Die Fledermaus Oskar Kolberg Shepard’s King
Justyna Reczeniedi leads an intensive concert activity in Poland.
Tours with the Warsaw Chamber Opera across Japan in December 2004: Tokyo, Chiba, Kokura, Nakano, Machida, Numazu, Sayama, Kiso, Utsunomiya, and Kawaguchi. During this tour she performed Mozart’s music such as Susanna’s, Pamina`s arias, Exultate Jubilate and others.
Tours with the Warsaw Chamber Opera across Spain in January 2006: Auditorio y Palacio de Congresos Pamplona, Auditorio y Palacio de Congresos Albacete, Teatro Circo Murcia, Auditorio y Centro de Congresos Alicante, Teatro Principal Vitoria, Teatro Jovellanos Gijon.
Participation in the 14th and 15th Mozart Festival in Warsaw Chamber Opera (June – July 2004, 2005) Fiordiligi in W.A. Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.
Participation in Al Bustan Festival in Beirut, March 2006 – W.A. Mozart’s Mass in C Minor.
Participation in the premiere and performances of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the Latvian National Opera in Riga.
* Second appearance at the Al Bustan Festival
Elzbieta Wroblewska, mezzo-soprano
Education
A graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (2005, with honours).
She has taken part in the master classes of Rockwell Blake and Alberto Zedda. She attended Alberto Zedda’s Accademia Rossiniana course in Pesaro in 2003, after which she appeared in “Il Viaggio a Reims” at the Rossini Opera Festival.
Awards
She won second prize and the Polish Composer’s Union special prize at the Inter-school Competition of Polish Artistic Song in Warsaw (2001), and second prize (no first prize was awarded) in the oratorio/lieder category and a special prize at the Vocal Competition in Duszniki-Zdroj (2002). She is also a recipient of a special prize at the Ada Sari Vocal Competition in Nowy Sacz.
Opera performances
Elzbieta Wroblewska has been a soloists of the Warsaw Chamber Opera since 2003, debuting there as Arsace in G. Rossini’s “Semiramide” At the Warsaw Chamber Opera, she appears in works by Mozart: Annio (“La Clemenza di Tito”), Ramiro (“La Finta Giardiniera”), Ascanio (“Ascanio in Alba”), Farnace (“Mitridate, Rè di Ponto), as well as singing the role of Rosina in Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia”. She collaborates with the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera (Delia in Rossini’s “Il Viaggio a Reims”, the Governess in Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades”; the Teatr Wielki in Poznan (Jadwiga in Moniuszko’s “The Haunted Manor”, Cherub in “Le Nozze di Figaro”) and with the Silesian Opera (Orfeo in Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice”).
Activities
She also performs in oratorios (including Bach, Caldara, Handel, Mozart, Rossini) and lyrical vocal works by Polish and foreign composers.
Mateusz Zadjel, tenor
Graduated from the Frideric Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. Attended master-classes led by Wieslaw Ochman, Ryszard Karczykowski and Kaludi Kaludov.
He is the second prize winner at the Singing Contests in Cracow and Lodz.
Since 2007 he is a soloist of the Warsaw Chamber Opera.
Up to now M. Zajdel has appeared as Ernesto (“Don Pasquale”), Basilio/Curzio (Le nozze di Figaro”) and Steva Burya (“Jenůfa” by L. Janáček).
Slawomir JURCZAK, bass-baritone
Slawomir Jurczak graduated from the Vocal and Acting department of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in 1986.
In that same year he began to work as a soloist with the Warsaw Chamber Opera. He has many solo parts in his repertoire, from operas by Mozart (Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte, Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Publio in La clemenza di Tito), Verdi (Pistol in Falstaff), Rossini (Alidoro in La Cenerentola, Fernando Villabella in La gazza ladra, Haly in L’Italiana in Algeri, Don Basilio in il Barbiere di Siviglia). He has sung in works by Kurpinski, Moniuszko, Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Blow, Handel, Purcell, Lully, Campra, Viktor Ullmann, Bernadetta Matuszczak, Zygmunt Krauze and others.
He has worked with many early music ensembles and performers, including Wladyslaw Klosiewicz, Agata Sapiecha and Simon Standage. He is an active concert vocalist both at home and abroad, performing in oratorios and cantatas such as Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Haydn’s Nelson Mass.
He has also worked as assistant director to Ryszard Peryt on Handel’s Rinaldo and Krauze’s Baltazar.
He has taken part in a number of recordings of early, stage and oratorial music: Marcin Mielczewski’s Opera Omnia, Stanislaw Sylwester Szarzynski’s Opera Omnia, Jacopo Peri’s Euridice, Jan Stefani’s The Miracle, or Cracovians and Highlanders and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater.
He has appeared with the Warsaw Chamber Opera ensemble on stages in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, Lebanon and Japan.
In 2005 he received a state award: the Silver Cross of Merit for artistic achievement. • Third appearance at the Al Bustan Festival
Antonine University Choir
Fr. TouFic Maatouk, choirmaster
The Choir of the Antonine University belongs to the Higher Institute of Music and to the School of Music at the Antonine University. Being faithful to the monastic tradition of the Antonine Maronite Order, it has contributed since the eighties to the cultural enrichment of the Lebanese musical life by its repertory centred around the Antonine musical tradition.
Its repertory is also rich in the classical and the contemporary music. The Antonine University Choir has completed several concerts and tours in Rome, Milan, Nice, Lyon, Monaco, St. Etienne, Doha, Dubai (Al Aïn), Jordan, etc. it has also participated to Al Aïn 8th Classical Music Festival in Don Giovanni-Mozart’s opera. The choir participated with several orchestras such as the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, etc.
The Antonine University Choir’s other credits involve numerous recordings of the Maronite liturgy hymns.
The choir will perform in March 2009 at Al Aïn 9th Classical Music Festival (united Arabic emirates) in Nozze di Figaro-Mozart’s opera and in July 2009 at the Festival International de Musique Sacrée de Sylvanès (France).
choir Master: Toufic Maatouk
Rob Vermeulen, conductor
Born in 1961
Education
Arnhem School of Music
Rotterdam School of Music
Studied with Lazlo Haltay, Sir John Eliot Gardner and Uwe Gronostay
Received Choral Directing Diploma
Activities
Artistic Director and Choirmaster of the Netherlands Concert Choir since 1993
Lecturer in choral conducting at Arnhem Conservatoire
Senior lecturer in choral conducting at the Utrecht Conservatoire
Conductor of the Utrecht Project Choir, which specializes in performing choral works, since 1990
• 3rd appearance at the Al Bustan Festival
Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra
For the biography of the orchestra, please refer to 18 & 19 February
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