Anne Schwanewilms, soprano

As one of the most important interpreters of the works of Richard Strauss, Anne Schwanewilms has made a name for herself worldwide. Her repertoire includes roles such as Arabella, Ariadne, Chrysothemis, Feldmarschallin and Empress and extends to roles such as Elsa, Elisabeth, Marie and the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein. She is a regular guest at the major international opera houses, including Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan and New York, at the Saxon State Opera in Dresden, under the direction of Christian Thielemann, as Arabella and Chrysothemis. At the Salzburg Festival, her performances as Carlotta in Schreker’s “Die Gezeichneten Gezeichneten” and as the Empress in “Die Frau ohne Schatten” made a lasting impression.
Anne Schwanewilms has worked with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Zubin Metha, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Vladimir Jurowski and Christoph von Dohnányi.
Her great love is the Lied. She has become one of the most renowned song singers of all time. Accompanied by pianists such as Malcolm Martineau and Charles Spencer, her interpretations of songs by Schumann, Schubert, Wolf, Wagner, Liszt, Mahler, Strauss, Schreker and Korngold set artistic standards.
Anne Schwanewilms has an extensive discography. In addition to numerous
opera recordings on CD and DVD, she has also released several recordings of lieder. The soprano has received numerous prizes and awards. In 2002, the magazine
“Opernwelt” magazine voted her singer of the year. For the CD recording “Wozzeck” she was awarded the honoured with the ECHO Klassik in 2017 and the GRAMMY in 2018. In 2019, the DVD “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” from the Bayreuth Festival received an OPUS Klassik.
She has been teaching as a Professor of singing at Weimar University since October 2018.

Andrea Marie Baiocchi, pianist

Andrea Marie Baiocchi was born in Chicago. She studied at Indiana University Bloomington, where she earned both her Bachelor’s degree and a Performer’s Diploma, and was awarded the Performer’s Certificate, the institution’s highest musical honour. She also received a scholarship from the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. In 2002, she won First Prize in the piano category of the National Society of Arts and Letters’ National Career Award, and in 2009 she was a finalist at the Nadia et Lili Boulanger International Vocal-Piano Competition in Paris.

Andrea Marie Baiocchi has performed in renowned venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Gasteig in Munich, the Mozarteum Salzburg, and the Musikverein Vienna. From 2005 to 2011, she served as assistant to KS Thomas Quasthoff at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where she later led her own accompaniment class and taught Alexander Technique to singers until 2022.

Since 2022, she has been working as an accompanist at the University of Music Würzburg. In April 2024, she also began teaching song interpretation there alongside Prof. Gerold Huber. Since the winter semester 2025/26, she has been teaching Alexander Technique at the Institute for Voice and Music Theatre at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw), where she now also teaches the course “Lied and Oratorio.”