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

American pianist Andrea Marie Baiocchi has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. A graduate of Indiana University Bloomington, Andrea Marie Baiocchi is an Associate Lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Germany, where she was previously the assistant of Thomas Quasthoff from 2005-2011. Concert appearances include Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie and Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Gasteig Munich, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, and Mozarteum Salzburg.
A 2013 Malcolm Martineau Crear Scholar, a Fellow at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, First Prize winner of the ‘National Career Award’ by the National Society of Arts and Letters, and finalist in the Lili and Nadia Boulanger International Song Competition, Ms. Baiocchi holds a Bachelors Degree and Performer Diploma from Bloomington’s Indiana University, as well as a Performer’s Certificate – the school’s highest musical honor.
Ms. Baiocchi’s principal mentors have been Eric Schneider, Hortense Cartier-Bresson, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, and Evelyne Brancart. She has also studied German Art Song with Leonard Hokanson and participated in masterclasses with Menahem Pressler, Robert Tear, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Malcolm Martineau, Matthias Goerne, Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Jansen, and Elly Ameling.