Manuel Adt, baritone

Kota Sakaguchi, piano

Germany / Japan

Manuel Adt

Manuel Adt began his musical education on the violoncello. He later received singing lessons from Hartmut Elbert as a member of the Bavarian Singing Academy. Since 2012, the baritone has been studying singing in Andreas Schmidt's class at the University of Music and Theater in Munich, now in the master's degree in song design.

Manuel Adt is a prizewinner of various competitions, so in 2018 he was awarded the special singing prize of the German Music Competition in the subject Lied duo. Manuel Adt regularly appears as a soloist in southern Germany. His concert repertoire includes important oratorios and requiem settings by Schütz, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and
Brahms.
Manuel Adt has also performed in various roles on the opera stage. He sang a number of roles in his field in productions at the Munich University of Music and Theater, including Count Almaviva (“Le nozze di Figaro”), Herr Fluth (“Die lustigen Frauen von Windsor”), Junius (“The Rape of Lucretia ”) and Doctor Falke (“ Die Fledermaus ”). He has also made several guest appearances at the Munich Biennale, the State Theater in Nuremberg and the Bavarian State Opera. Manuel Adt is a member of the Bavarian Radio Choir from 2018 to 2020.

Kota Sakaguchi

After studying at the Kyoto University of Art, Kota Sakaguchi is now studying song accompagniment with Prof. Fritz Schwinghammer at the Munich University of Music and Theater. As a student, he made his debut as a soloist with the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra in February 2017. He won first prize at the 2nd International Helmut Deutsch Lied Competition, and third prize at the 32nd PTNA Piano Competition, the
"Audience Special Prize" at the Takarazuka-Vega Music Competition and first prize at the 1st Nagoya International Music Competition. He also made his debut as a conductor with the Telemann Chamber Orchestra Osaka in September 2018.

Minsoo Ahn, bass-baritone

Mijung Clara Shin, piano

South Korea / South Korea

Minsoo Ahn

The bass-baritone Minsoo AHN deepened his vocal studies from 2009 in the field of solo singing with the mezzo-soprano Gabriele Sima at the Music and Art Private University of the City of Vienna. Minsoo AHN completed his bachelor's degree with distinction in 2013. During his studies he made his debut in several operas such as “Die Zauberflöte”, “Cosi fan tutte”, “Le nozze di Figaro”, “The Rake's Progress” as a soloist in Vienna.

He received particularly positive reviews for his roles in the opera "Edenarabseke" by Wolfang Liebhart, at the international festival for modern music "Wien Modern" and in the opera "La Bianca Notte" by Beat Furrer in the modern festival "Klangspuren". He also appeared in various leading roles such as Don Profondo in "Il viaggio a Reims" by Rossini in the concert hall of the Vienna Boys' Choir "MuTh", as Nick Shadow in "The Rake's Progress" by Stravinsky in the Akzent Theater, as Don Alfonso in “Cosi fan tutte” by Mozart in the Konzerthaus Vienna 2016, as Figaro in the opera “Le nozze di Figaro” in the Konzerthaus Vienna 2017, as “Director” in the opera “Attention Recording!” By Wilhelm Grosz in the ORF Radio Kulturhaus 2018. Especially his roles as Nick Shadow, Don Alfonso and Figaro earned him the highest praise from opera reviews.

In addition to his opera engagements, the regular guest singer appeared in the Konzerthaus Wien, the Odeon Theater Salzburg, the Musikverein Graz, the Brucknerhaus Linz and at the 4 performances in the opera projects of the Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic. Since 2013 he has been impressing his audience every year in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the heart of Vienna, at the Advent concert as a soloist in collaboration with the soloists of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

Minsoo AHN is a multiple winner of various competitions such as the Fidelio Competition in Vienna, the 16th Osaka International Music Competition in the opera category, also the international singing competition "Giangiacomo Guelfi" in Bolzano, Italy and the international Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach.

During his master's degree at the Music and Art University of the City of Vienna, he learned opera from, among others, Angelika Kirchschlager, Gerhard Kahry, Niels Muus, Wolfgang Dosch, Michael Pinkerton, Gabriele Sima and a few more. In addition to his studies, he expanded his stage experience as an opera soloist and as a singer, among others with the pianist of the "Duo Piano Shin Park" for German art songs Mijung Shin. Now he gives the singing lessons to the students at the MDW 'Singing and Music Theater' as a singing assistant.

Clara Mijung Shin

The pianist Clara Mijung Shin completed her bachelor's degree in piano concert at Seoul National University with distinction. ShinPark was able to make a name for itself by winning the first prize with the highest number of points at the International Piano Competition "Ischia" in the piano duo (four-handed) category in June 2015. The artistic charisma of these two exceptional artists was rewarded with second prize at the 64th ARD International Music Competition - one of the toughest in the musical world - in 2015, with first prize at the 4th International Piano Duo Competition in December 2016 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco and with the first prize as well as the Schubert Prize (second prize was not awarded) at the XX. International Schubert Competition in Jeseník, Czech Republic confirmed. These successes resulted in collaboration with numerous well-known ensembles and artists, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Romanian Radio National Orchestra, Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, Zagreb Soloists, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. You have performed at well-known music festivals and played in large concert halls; Wiener Musikverein, Lisinki Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wiener Konzerthaus, etc. They initially studied independently at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and at the Vienna Conservatory. The ShinPark duo is currently studying together with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna. Teaching in the master course / class. She is currently working as a lecturer at the MDW.

Vassia Alati, soprano

Yuto Kiguchi, piano

Greece - Netherlands / Japan

Vassia Alati

Vassia Alati (soprano) was born in 1992 and at the age of 6 she received her first piano lessons. In October 2010 she started her bachelor's degree in singing at the Athens Conservatory and in June 2016 she graduated with distinction and first prize (class of Prof. Joulia Troussa). Furthermore, she received the coveted “Maria Callas Scholarship” and studies it at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. She graduated with honors from her master's degree in music-dramatic performance in 2019 and is now studying master's lied and oratorio in the class of Prof. Markus Hadulla and Prof. Peter Edelmann.
Vassia has sung as a concert soloist in Greece, the Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus, South Korea, Germany and France. She attended master classes with KS Edda Moser, Margreet Honig, Helmut Deutsch, Dimitri Kavrakos, Antony Koroneos, Stephen Hopkins, KS Krassimira Stoyanova, Gabriele Lechner and others
In March 2020 she and the pianist Yuto Kiguchi received second prize at the "International Student Lied Duo Competition" in Groningen (Netherlands).
In addition to her vocal studies, she also studied technical mathematics and physics at the Technical University in Athens.

Yuto Kiguchi

Yuto Kiguchi is a talented Japanese pianist. After graduating from the Kyoto City University of Arts in solo piano as the best of his year with the Mayor Prize, he moved to Vienna in 2016. In the summer of 2019 he completed the master's degree in piano vocal accompaniment at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with distinction. He is currently in the postgraduate course for vocal accompaniment with Prof. Markus Hadulla and is also studying chamber music with Prof. Stefan Mendl.
As a song accompanist, he often appears with the young Greek sopanist Vassia Alati and Japanese soprano Misaki Morino, who is currently attracting attention and gives numerous concerts with them in Japan and Vienna. With Vassia Alati, he won second prize at the International Student Song Duo Competition, which took place in March 2020 in the Netherlands. In addition, he won the special prize "Best Lied Accompaniment" at the Johannes Brahms International Competition, which took place in Pörtschach in September 2020. He has steadily developed a career as a song accompanist. He has also been invited to attend opera competitions such as "Ottavio Zino" and "NEUE STIMME" as official accompanist, and has received grants from the Office for Cultural Affairs in Japan and the Rohm Music Foundation.

Christina Aloneftis, mezzo-soprano

Cyprus - Australia

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“Young Greek-Cypriot Australian mezzo-soprano, Christiana Aloneftis “has an exceptionally warm, expressive voice.... She performs with poise and graceful, nuanced phrasing” – Joyce DiDonato.

Currently based in Munich, she trained on invitation at the Bayerische Staatsoper after having completed further studies on full-scholarship at the internationally-renowned, École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot Paris “Alfred Cortot” (2017). Aloneftis graduated from the University of Melbourne and Monash University (Australia) with a BMus and a DipLang Adv. Italian (2013) and a Master of Interpreting and Translation degree from Monash University (2014). She is fluent in five languages. The “genuine discovery...who perform(s) with a captivating stage presence, both in her personality and richly-coloured voice” (Wiesbadener Tagblatt) has performed a variety of soprano operatic roles, before her recent fach change, including Barbarina (Weimar 2015), Musetta (Connecticut Lyric Opera 2016), Zerlina, Susanna, Despina (North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra 2016), Annina with Opera Classica Europa / RheinMain Philharmoniker Frankfurt (2017) and Tsarevna in the Australian premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kashchey the Immortal at the MRC (2018).

She has been awarded numerous awards and scholarships and, in addition to her young singing career, is a talented young English and Italian lyric diction coach at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Ms Aloneftis is keen to establish her “gorgeous, resonant voice...(and) strong musical and dramatic commitment” (2019) in her new repertoire in 2021 and is a great fan of not only the opera stage but the art of recital, harbouring a passion for Greek art song.