Carnegie Hall

Renée Fleming is one of the most highly acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. Honored with five Grammy Awards and the US National Medal of Arts, she has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Super Bowl. A Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health for the World Health Organization, she was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor in December.

Ms. Fleming’s current concert calendar includes appearances in Paris, Milan, Vienna, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Recent opera performances include starring in the world premiere staging of The Hours, a new opera based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel and award-winning film, at the Metropolitan Opera, and a role debut as Pat Nixon in a new production of Nixon in China at the Opéra national de Paris. Her recording Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Ms. Fleming is currently touring her own innovative song program inspired by the album, with a special film created by the National Geographic Society. In January, Decca released a special double-length album of live recordings from her iconic performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Renée Fleming: Greatest Moments at the Met. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance in Carousel on Broadway, and her voice is featured in two Best Picture Oscar–winning films.

A leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience, Ms. Fleming launched the first ongoing collaboration between the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Institutes of Health. She has presented her program Music and the Mind in more than 50 cities around the world, earning Research!America’s Rosenfeld Award for Impact on Public Opinion.

In addition to directing SongStudio at Carnegie Hall, Ms. Fleming is co–artistic director of the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS Program at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and advisor for special projects at the Los Angeles Opera. Other awards include the Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts, the 2023 Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum, the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and French Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur. She holds honorary doctorates from eight leading universities.

Over the past decade, Spanish pianist and scholar Javier Arrebola has emerged as an important figure in art song for his creativity, artistry, performances, and scholarship. Mr. Arrebola is currently artistic associate for SongStudio at Carnegie Hall, co–artistic director and director of the piano program at SongFest, and on faculty at Tanglewood Music Center. In the past, he has held positions as head of piano in the program for singers at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, chair of collaborative piano at Boston University and visiting professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has also been a guest at institutions such as The Juilliard School, University of Minnesota, Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, Conservatoire Hector Berlioz, and The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School of Music.

In recent years, Mr. Arrebola’s work and contributions have extended to being the video editor and illustrator of, among other projects, Wigmore Hall’s Schubert in Life & Songs, a seminal series by pianist and scholar Graham Johnson, and of SongFest’s Songs of Unity & Hope, an online event conceived and curated by Mr. Arrebola featuring more than 60 countries and 40 different languages from all over the world.

Called “a voice for this historic moment” (The Washington Post), Grammy Award–winning baritone Will Liverman is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award by the Metropolitan Opera and the co-creator of soul opera The Factotum—called “mic-drop, fabulous, good” (Opera News)—which premiered at the Lyric Opera Chicago in 2023. Described as “nothing short of extraordinary” (Opera News) with a “beaming, high baritone that easily asserts” (Los Angeles Times), Mr. Liverman has been hailed by critics for his versatility in dramatic and comedic roles, as well as on concert stages in North America and internationally, and for his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor helping to evolve and push the performing arts industry forward.

This season, Mr. Liverman returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the title role of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. He was previously seen at the Met opening its 2021–2022 season in a celebrated “breakout performance” (The New York Times) as Charles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones, which won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

His 2023–2024 season further includes productions with Opera Philadelphia for the world premiere of Rene Orth’s Ten Days in a Madhouse and the Met for Roméo et Juliette. In concert, he joins The Lexington Philharmonic for the orchestrated world premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches, Houston Symphony for Carmina Burana, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, and The Washington Chorus for Elijah Reimagined, plus Dayton Opera, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and Cincinnati Song Initiative for vocal recitals.

Last season, the Lyric Opera of Chicago presented the world premiere of Mr. Liverman’s new opera, The Factotum, which he starred in and composed with DJ King Rico. Inspired by Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, the duo placed the story in a present-day Black barbershop on Chicago’s South Side, and celebrate the strength of community and power of the human spirit. Blending together diverse musical styles, including hip-hop, R&B, funk, gospel, and traditional barbershop quartet to create a soul opera, The Factotum “offers a chameleonic pastiche of soul, funk, and classical elements that is incredibly effective” (Opera News). Houston Grand, Portland, and Washington National operas are all slated to put on The Factotum in future seasons.

Cedille Records released Mr. Liverman’s Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sanchez in February 2021. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard Traditional Classical chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. His 2020 album, Whither Must I Wander, with pianist Jonathan King was named one of the Chicago Tribune’s “best classical recordings of 2020.”

Mr. Liverman is an alum of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Wheaton College in Illinois.

Hailed as “riveting on stage ... with damnable commitment and satisfying vocal chops” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Barkidjija is an avid performer of new music and has sung many regional and world premieres. She most recently was a Detroit Opera Resident Artist, where she covered principal roles in Faust, Serse, and Ainadamar, and will return to the company as a guest artist in spring 2024 to perform as Dodo in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves and to cover the role of Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. This summer, she will return to the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she will perform the role of Marcellina in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.

She has been a young artist with the Merola Opera Program, Central City Opera, and Tanglewood Music Center. She has earned accolades from the Rochester Oratorio Society, The Gerda Lissner Foundation, Camille Coloratura Competition, Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, and Young Patronesses of the Opera Competition. She received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University, where she was awarded a full merit scholarship. She was also a young artist with the Boston University Opera Institute, where she won the Phyllis Curtin Award.

Mezzo-soprano Ruby Dibble holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and Conservatory and a master’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. She is working toward an artist diploma in opera studies at The Juilliard School. At Curtis, she performed roles including Dorabella (Così fan tutte) and Elle (La voix humaine). She has performed at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Her professional engagements include Flora (La traviata) at Wolf Trap Opera and Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. She also covered Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) at Santa Fe Opera. She won the Kansas City district of the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, and she was a semifinalist in the 2022 and 2023 Lotte Lenya Competition and the second-place winner of the 2023 Cooper-Bing Competition. She spent this past summer at the Aspen Music Festival and School singing the role of Carmen in Jimmy López’s Bel Canto.

Ms. Dibble looks forward to singing the role of Sesto in Juilliard’s upcoming production of La clemenza di Tito as well as covering the title role in the Glimmerglass Festival’s production of Elizabeth Cree.

Swiss baritone Felix Gygli was recently the 2023 winner of The Kathleen Ferrier Awards and the lied prizewinner of the Queen Sonja Singing Competition in Oslo. In the 2023–2024 season, he joins the International Opera Studio at Opernhaus Zürich. He was a member of the Atelier Lyrique of the Verbier Festival, where he was awarded the Thierry Mermod Prize for most promising singer. He performed the role of the Second Journeyman (Wozzeck) at Verbier and will appear as Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at Opernhaus Zürich. He opened the 2023–2024 season with the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier in a gala concert with conductor Chloé Dufresne. In 2024, he will appear as the baritone soloist in Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra.

He is a keen recitalist and appears regularly with pianists Jong Sun Woo and Tomasz Domański in recitals in the UK, France, and Switzerland. A regular performer of oratorios, he has performed Fauré’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and multiple Bach cantatas around Europe. In 2022, he made his operatic debut singing Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Ouverture-Opéra, Sion, and has since appeared in multiple scene productions as a 2022–2023 National Opera Studio Young Artist.

Korean pianist Ye In Kwak lived and studied music in Russia beginning at the age of six, when she moved with her family to attend the Gnessin School of Music in Moscow. Upon graduating, she began studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In 2014, Ms. Kwak returned to South Korea to complete her piano performance degree at Seoul National University. Very interested in musical collaboration, she continued her education in vocal coaching at Korea National University of Arts. Currently, she is studying under Myra Huang at the Manhattan School of Music, where she has been awarded a full scholarship. Most recently, she made her New York debut at The Greene Space and was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Finnish pianist Anni Laukkanen has enjoyed an international career as both a chamber and solo artist, and as a specialist in art song. Currently based in Germany, she works as a collaborative pianist at the Universität der Künste Berlin and is in high demand as a recitalist. After her piano performance studies at the Sibelius Academy, where she initially shifted her focus to collaborative arts, she continued her education in Berlin, studying with Wolfram Rieger at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. She has been invited to young artist programs such as the Toronto Summer Music Festival as well as the Académie Orsay-Royaumont, where she is currently participating in a series of master classes for the 2023–2024 season. She will remain in residence at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris for the next two seasons.

Ms. Laukkanen has enriched her knowledge of art song through various master classes led by world-renowned artists such as Helmut Deutsch, Brian Zeger, Simon Lepper, Susan Manoff, Graham Johnson, and Christiane Iven. She is the prizewinner for the best lied interpretation at the International Haydn Competition with soprano Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir. She was also a finalist in the Hugo-Wolf-Akademie International Art Song Competition in Stuttgart, the International Schubert Competition Dortmund, and the Nadia and Lili Boulanger Competition in Paris. She was a Live Music Now Artist and a scholar from the Neustart Kultur.

Dedicated to performing a wide range of solo and chamber repertoire, pianist Jeong-Eun Lee is assistant professor of collaborative piano at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Prior to joining UTSA, she taught at Indiana University as a visiting assistant professor and postdoctoral scholar, and held collaborative pianist positions at SUNY–Geneseo and Riverside City College.

Ms. Lee has served as a collaborative pianist at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she previously received instrumental and vocal fellowships. She was a fellow at SongFest in Los Angeles and played in master classes with Margo Garrett, Graham Johnson, Martin Katz, and Roger Vignoles. She has participated in festivals that include the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, CollabFest, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and Holland International Music Sessions. In addition, she is a member of Trio Zenia with violinist Jacob Schafer and cellist Patricia Ryan.

Since her orchestral debut with the Skagit Symphony, she has appeared as a soloist with orchestras around the US, including the Seattle Symphony, Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, and Eastern Music Festival Orchestra. She has performed at the Kennedy Center and Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, and internationally in the Czech Republic, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Praised for his “otherworldly flourish” (The Wall Street Journal) and “intense stage presence” (Classical Voice North America), Chinese countertenor Chuanyuan Liu is proving himself a strong presence amid the new generation of countertenors. In recent seasons, his professional credits have included Polinesso in Ariodante and The Priest / The Medium in In a Grove at Pittsburgh Opera, Man Under the Arch / Hotel Clerk in The Hours with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the title role in Monkey at White Snake Projects, Cesar in Bel Canto at Aspen Opera Theater, and Amore in Orpheus & Erica: A Deaf Opera at Victory Hall Opera. He covered the role of Song Liling in M. Butterfly at Santa Fe Opera in 2022. He is a two-time national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, and has won awards from Opera Index, Camille Coloratura Awards, The Gerda Lissner Foundation, and Opera at Florham. He holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music and Bard College.

Khayakazi Madlala hails from Eastern Cape, South Africa, and currently studies with Conroy Cupido at North-West University. She trained with Marcus Desando and Emma Renzi at the Gauteng Opera Academy, where she performed the role of Mimì in the Gauteng Opera production of La bohème at the Joburg Theatre and The Playhouse Company in Durban. She participated in a master class hosted by the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival.

In South Africa, she has performed twice with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniel Boico at The Playhouse Company, and also performed at the Johannesburg Opera’s Inaugural Christmas Concert. She recently performed at a gala concert with Cape Town Opera and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Adam Smidt. In 2020, she won the Audience and Andrea Catzel prizes at the Voices of South Africa: International Opera Singing Competition. She won first place at the Bk8 competition in 2021.

Internationally, she has travelled to Sweden to perform at Star for Life in Concert at the Malmö Opera. She also travelled to Brazil to perform alongside Dance Factory Newtown in The Sacrifice by Dada Masilo.

Aleksandra Myslek is a Polish collaborative pianist and répétiteur. She has studied at the Royal Academy of Music (with Christopher Elton and Hamish Milne), Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, and Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Her studies have been generously supported by the International Opera Awards Foundation, Sybil Tutton Opera Awards, and The Kathleen Trust.

Ms. Myslek is a prizewinner of both solo and chamber music competitions such as the International Chopin Piano Competition in Budapest, Wilfrid Parry Brahms Prize of the Royal Academy of Music, Brenda Webb Accompanist Prize, The Tunnell Trust Award, and Edith Poulsen Accompanist Prize. She has performed in Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Austria, Italy, Hungary, and the UK, including at Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, and The Anvil. She has been a guest on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune with violinist Eleanor Corr.

She has worked with the English National Opera, Opera Holland Park, and Richard Hetherington, head of music at the Royal Opera House. Passionate about making music available for all, she has an ongoing collaboration with Live Music Now, an organization that brings concerts and workshops to audiences who would not normally have access to it.

Edmond Rodriguez is a Latin American tenor from Miami who enjoys an eclectic career pursuing performance opportunities in classical music, art song, opera, and popular music. In 2022, he was a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. He was cast in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence, performing the American premiere conducted by the composer. His performance was recognized for its “pure, guileless high range” (The Boston Globe) and “frightening dignity” (The New York Times).

Mr. Rodriguez has performed with LA Opera Connects and New Opera West, earning praise for his “warm and notably smooth line” (San Francisco Classical Voice). He premiered Derrick Skye’s AI opera Song of the Ambassadors at REDCAT, and also performed an excerpt at the 2023 TED Conference. Earlier this year, he made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Steve Reich’s Traveler’s Prayer.

On the stage, Mr. Rodriguez has performed roles such as Anthony in Sweeney Todd, the Young King in Lessons in Love and Violence, Thomas Edison in A Fragile Filament, Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Le Pêcheur in Le rossignol, the Man with the Old Luggage in Postcard from Morocco, and La Rainette in L’enfant et les sortilèges.

In the 2023–2024 season, baritone Gabriel Rollinson will perform in the ensemble at the Staatstheater Mainz and Bavarian Stage Opera, and with Netherlands Radio Stichting Omroep Muziek conducted by Marcus Creed. Upcoming song programs include Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in Frankfurt and his debut at the Schubertíada Vilabertran with a program of Franz Schubert and William Grant Still songs with pianist Hartmut Höll.

In 2022, Mr. Rollinson won the Polish Song Prize at the 11th International Stanisław Moniuszko Competition, and in 2023, he reached the semifinals of the Operalia Competition in Cape Town.

In the 2022–2023 season, he made debuts at the Bregenz Festival, Bavarian State Opera, and Staatsoper Unter den Linden. He has premiered numerous works, including the role of Arturo Cidre in Micha Hamel’s Caruso a Cuba for the Dutch National Opera. Concerts and recitals have brought him to the George Enescu Festival, Lake Constance Festival, Eppaner Liedsommer, Salzburg Festival, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Born in England to German and American parents, Mr. Rollinson studied at the Manhattan School of Music, Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich, and Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. He was a member of the opera studios at Opera Frankfurt and the Bavarian State Opera (with a scholarship from the New York Opera Foundation). In 2019, he joined the Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie, and in 2021, he participated in the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival.

Dynamic pianist Natalie Sherer thrives in collaboration with singers and instrumentalists alike. A frequent recitalist, she premiered Sorrow & Ecstasy: The Complete Songs of Henri Duparc, a semi-staged musical narrative following four characters’ journeys of love and lament, and she hosts the podcast CollabPiano, celebrating musical collaboration through art song. Ms. Sherer recently performed with Ryan Speedo Green in concert at Florida State University, where she is an assistant professor of vocal coaching. Her recent engagements include performances at CollabFest with the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society, NATS National Conference and Intern Program, SongFest, Sparks & Wiry Cries SongSLAM, Prague Summer Nights, and Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago’s Vocal Chamber Music Fellowship. She holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, Wheaton College, Roosevelt University, and the University of Michigan. Her motto is “Soli Deo gloria.”

Originally from Scotland, Daniel Peter Silcock is a pianist and distinguished song accompanist. He studies with Joseph Middleton and Mei-Ting Sun at the Royal Academy of Music, where he has won the Major Van Someren-Godfrey Prize. Previously, he studied with Aaron Shorr and James Willshire at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he won the A. Ramsay Calder Debussy Prize and the Governors’ Recital Prize.

Mr. Silcock is a Samling Institute Young Artist, and he won second prize in the Roma International Piano Competition. With mezzo-soprano Annabel Kennedy, he performed at the Royal Over-Seas League Gold Medal Final at Wigmore Hall. With bass-baritone Charles Cunliffe, he was awarded the Franz Schubert Institute UK Prize as a Leeds Lieder Young Artist in 2023, leading to recitals and master classes on Winterreise with Roger Vignoles at Conway Hall.

Mr. Silcock’s engagements in recent seasons have included performances at Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, Caird Hall, Music at Paxton Festival, Petworth Festival, and International Lied Festival Zeist. He accompanied the first recital given by Academy Song Circle at the Institut Français UK in Chelsea, and has given concerts at the Italian Cultural Forum and Regent Hall. In 2023–2024, he looks forward to returning to Wigmore Hall with the Royal Academy of Music Academy Song Circle.

Florian Störtz won the 2023 Helmut Deutsch Song Competition as well as the 2023 International Handel Singing Competition. This season, he performs under the baton of Masaaki Suzuki on a European tour of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, embarks on a UK tour of the St. John Passion with Oxford Bach Soloists, makes his debut at the Handel Halle Festival, and returns to the London Handel Festival in a production of Esther under the direction of Laurence Cummings. His recording of Duruflé’s Requiem with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, was released by Hyperion.

On the recital stage, Mr. Störtz’s recent appearances include French song concerts at Salle Cortot and Wigmore Hall as part of the Wigmore Hall French Song Exchange, as well as at song festivals in Zeist and Leeds. Together with pianist Mark Rogers, he has won the 2023 Nadia and Lili Boulanger Competition. This season, he makes his recital debut with pianist Helmut Deutsch at the International Music Festival Zell am See. His operatic roles include Bartolo in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Masetto and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, and Sir Thomas in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, during which he was awarded first prizes for both opera and song recitals, as well as the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme.

Born in Malaysia, pianist Tzu Kuang Tan has performed as a collaborative pianist and chamber musician in many venues in the US and internationally. Currently, he is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin in opera coaching, studying with Tamar Sanikidze. He has degrees from University of Michigan and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore. Previous teachers include Martin Katz, Amy I-Lin Cheng, and Albert Tiu.

He won the 2022 Marilyn Horne Song Competition, 2021 Jacqueline Avent Concerto Competition, 2018 Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concerto Competition, and Briggs Chamber Music Competition. He was an assistant coach and rehearsal pianist for the mainstage productions of Don Pasquale and Highway 1, USA at the University of Michigan. He has worked with conductor Daniela Candillari on Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Music Academy of the West. He currently coaches and works as a rehearsal pianist for operas at the Butler Opera Center that include productions of La bohème, Tan Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of Spades, and Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades.

Yuriko Watanabe studied at The Purcell School for Young Musicians in London, Tokyo Gakugei University, and Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar. She currently studies art song collaboration at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll. Her recent achievements include prizes at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau and the 13th International Art Song Competition Stuttgart with Chinese tenor Zhuohan Sun. She won a scholarship from the Liedakademie in Heidelberg, directed by Thomas Hampson, and the Live Music Now Yehudi Menuhin Scholarship. This is her second year participating in Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio. She currently works at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar and Hochschule für Musik Freiburg.