Biographies Annual Gala
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Based in Amsterdam, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is regarded as one of the very best orchestras in the world. Since it was founded in 1888, it has collaborated with the greatest conductors and soloists. Such composers as Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Igor Stravinsky all conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra on more than one occasion. To this day, the orchestra continues to foster long-term relationships with contemporary composers.
Its very distinct, individual sound is partly due to the unique acoustics of The Concertgebouw. Another determining factor is the influence of the chief conductors, of whom there have been seven to date: Willem Kes, Willem Mengelberg, Eduard van Beinum, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Mariss Jansons and Daniele Gatti. In June 2022, it was announced that in a ten-year commitment, Klaus Mäkelä will join the orchestra as artistic partner with effect from the 2022-23 season, then as chief conductor from 2027.
In addition to some eighty concerts performed at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the orchestra gives forty concerts at other major concert halls throughout the world. The orchestra expands its reach through videos, streaming, and radio and television broadcasts. It also releases CD and DVD recordings on its Concertgebouworkest Live label. The Academy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra successfully moulds young, talented musicians into orchestral players of the highest calibre. Concertgebouworkest Young brings together hidden talent aged fourteen to seventeen from all over Europe.
The Concertgebouw Orchestra is co-funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Municipality of Amsterdam, sponsors, funds and numerous donors all over the world. The largest portion of its income is generated by proceeds from the concerts it gives in and outside the Netherlands.
Leonardo García Alarcón
dirigent
Leonardo García Alarcón is chief conductor of Capella Mediterranea and artistic director of the Namur Chamber Choir.
Having studied piano in his native country, Argentina, Alarcón moved to Geneva in 1997 to continue his studies as a harpsichordist and specialise in early music. In Switzerland he studied conducting with Baroque specialist Gabriel Garrido.
Alarcón teaches the harpsichord in Geneva. As a conductor and harpsichordist Alarcó performs at festivals and in concert halls all over the world.
In 2005 he founded Cappella Mediterranea, with which he gave much acclaimed performances of largely forgotten early Italian operas. We owe him the rediscovery of Cavalli's operas: Elena and Erismena at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2013 and 2017, Eliogabalo, to open the 2016 Paris Opera season and Il Giasone in Geneva. Alarcón composed a highly acclaimed new third act to Antonio Draghi’s opera El Prometeo, the original score having been lost to history.
In the 2022-23 season Leonardo García Alarcón will make his debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducting Mozart’s arrangement of Handels’s opera Acis and Galatea in a mise-en-espace by Pierre Audi.
Mark Milhofer
tenor (Acis)
Mark Milhofer was a choral scholar at Magdalen College in Oxford and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in Londen.
He made his operatic debut as the Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River, but it was the role of Giannetto in British Youth Opera's production of Rossini's La gazza ladra that brought him to the attention of public and critics alike. Subsequently invited by the As.Li.Co. Opera Studio in Milan to study in Italy, he worked with Renata Scotto and Leyler Gencer, singing the title role in Pergolesi's newly-discovered La Morte di S. Giuseppe. He went on to sing the role of Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff in several major Italian theatres.
After finishing his studies, Milhofer made his international debut when he was chosen by Giorgio Strehler to inaugurate the Italian director’s brand-new theatre in Milan with Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Initially, there were 41 shows, and over the next ten years the opera was often revived with Mark singing it over a hundred times, including performances in Cairo and Alexandria, Moscow, Beijing, Istanbul, Seoul and many cities in Europe.
In recent years, among the highlights in the tenor’s career were acclaimed performances of Bob Boles in Britten’s Peter Grimes, Taxis in Honegger’s Les aventures du roi Pausole, Lawyer in Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy, Belmonte in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Narraboth in Richard Strauss’s Salome.
Mark Milhofer is making his Concertgebouw Orchestra debut.
Keri Fuge
soprano (Galatea)
Fast becoming acknowledged as being among the ‘future generation of superb sopranos’, Keri Fuge is praised for the clarity of her voice as well as her strong stage presence
Keri Fuge studied at the Guildhall School of Music and the National Opera Studio where she was sponsored by The Glyndebourne New Generation Programme. She attracted attention at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Cupid in Rossini’s Orfeo, and successful performances at English National Opera as Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and as Dona Isabel in Purcell’s The Indian Queen.
Other operatic engagements have included Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina at Brisbane Baroque in Australia, Flavia in Mozart’s Lucio Silla at the Händel Festspiele in Göttingen, Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel for the Glyndebourne Tour and Barbarina and Chocholka in Janácek’s Cunning Little Vixen at the Glyndebourne Festival.
Concert highlights have included Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under the baton of Leonardo García Alarcón in Lisbon.
Ms. Fuge is making his Concertgebouw Orchestra debut.
Sreten Manojlović
bass (Polypheme)
Sreten Manojlović completed his vocal studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, in the class of Sebastian Vittucci. Early into his artistic development, he was supported by the Belgrade Baroque Academy and the New Belgrade Opera. Through this collaboration, he developed an affinity with music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
He debuted on the operatic stage as Zoroastro in Handel’s Orlando, and subsequently interpreted such roles as Polypheme in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and both Caronte and Plutone in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo.
Under Christoph Ulrich Meier’s direction, Manojlović interpreted such roles as Leone in Handel’s Tamerlano, Toante in Handel’s Oreste, Conte Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and Enrico in a production of Haydn’s L’isola disabitata that was nominated for the Austrian Musical Theatre Prize. Sreten also took part in two productions with the Vienna Boys Choir. He interpreted the role of Nardo in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera with the Jardin des voix and took part in another production of the same opera as part of the Wiener Philharmoniker’s Summer Academy. He regularly performs with the Orchestre de Picardie and Les arts florissants.
In recent years, Manojlović debuted at the Theater an der Wien, the Dortmund Konzerthaus, Philharmonie Berlin, and Barbican Centre in London. He is making his Concertgebouw Orchestra debut.
Valerio Contaldo
tenor (Damon)
The Italian-born tenor, Valerio Contaldo, grew in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Initially having studied classical guitar, he proceeded to study singing with Gary Magby at the Lausanne Conservatory, and attended masterclasses with Christa Ludwig, Alain Garichot, Klesie Kelly and David Jones. In 2008 he was a finalist of the Leipzig Bach Competition.
His broad repertoire includes the eponymous role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in a stage production with the Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Iván Fischer in Budapest, Vicenza and Genève and in a concert version in Amsterdam, Anvers and Versailles. He also sang the roles of Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante, Corebo and Eolo in Cavalli’s Didone with Les Arts Florissants under William Christie , Jupiter in Handel’s Semele, Aristée and Pluto in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld and Chevalier de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites.
He sang the role of Damon in Acis and Galatea at the Salzburger Festspiele with Les Musiciens du Louvre.
Contaldo also boasts an extensive oratorio repertoire, which includes Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and The Seasons; Honegger’s King David; Rossini’s Little Solemn Mass and Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio and Mass in B minor.
Valerio Contaldo is making his Concertgebouw Orchestra debut.
Guy Cutting
tenor (Coridon)
British tenor Guy Cutting was a chorister and later a choral scholar at New College Oxford, where he gained a first class degree in Music. Since graduating in 2012, he has been performing as a concert soloist with numerous British and international ensembles, focusing mainly on the baroque repertoire.
Mr Cutting is the inaugural recipient of the American Bach Soloists' Jeffrey Thomas Award, for young artists showing exceptional promise in the field of early music, and in the 2019-20 season was a Rising Star with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His solo engagements have included appearances with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Monteverdi Choir, The Academy of Ancient Music, Arcangelo, The Orchestra of the 18th Century, The Gabrieli Consort, Swedish Baroque Orchestra, Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, The Dutch Bach Society, The Orchestra of Tokyo University, Voces Tallinn, the American Bach Soloists, Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Le Concert Lorrain.
Cutting is a member of Damask Vocal Quartet, an ensemble specialising in the 19th and 20th century chamber repertoire. He is also an experienced ensemble singer, having performed with The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, Tenebrae, Alamire, The Taverner Choir, Contrapunctus, Arcangelo, Magnificat, and the Cambridge Singers.
At The Concertgebouw, Cutting has been performing as a soloist in several works by Bach with Collegium Vocale Gent under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe. He is now making his Concertgebouw Orchestra debut.
Netherlands Chamber Choir
For more than eighty years, the Netherlands Chamber Choir (Nederlands Kamerkoor) has enjoyed a place at the top of the international choral world. It owes this reputation to commissions of works by both well-known composers and young talent, and a continuous search for new formats and exciting collaborations. The choir has been praised by critics in the Netherlands and abroad
Participation and talent development play a vital role in the choir’s mission. The Netherlands Chamber Choir provides coaching and workshops, and ‘adopts’ choirs as support act for their own concerts. Additionally, the choir invests in talent development by offering traineeships to talented young singers.
Since September 2015 Peter Dijkstra has been chief-conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir. He is one of the most in demand choral conductors world-wide and is known for his sparkling performances. Amongst his predecessors were such renowned conductors like Uwe Gronostay, Tõnu Kaljuste, Stephen Layton, Risto Joost and founder Felix de Nobel.
The choir has been collaborating with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 1946, most recently in Bach’s St John Passion under the baton of William Christie in April 2019.
Pierre Audi
mise en espace
Pierre Audi (Beirut, 1957) founded the London Almeida Theatre in 1979. In 1988 he became director of the Dutch National Opera, where he directed numerous successful productions and initiated new repertoire.
In addition, Audi was the artistic director of the Holland Festival from 2005 to 2014. On the 50th anniversary of the Dutch National Opera in 2015, Audi founded the Opera Forward Festival.
In September 2018, Audi left the Dutch National Opera after 30 years as director, remaining involved as the director of two final productions, including the Stockhausen project aus LICHT (for the Holland Festival 2019).
Audi is artistic director of The Park Avenue Armory in New York and of the Aix-en-Provence Festival. In addition, he is creative partner of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2021. In the 2022-23 season, he provides the mise-en-espace for Händel’s Acis and Galatea conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón (30 September and 2 October) and is closely involved with concerts under the baton of Barbara Hannigan (1, 2 and 4 December), Maxim Emelyanychev (28 and 30 April) and Tan Dun (30 June and 1 July).