Daniel Schmid, tenor

Doriana Tchakarova, piano

Germany Germany

Daniel Schmid

The tenor Daniel Schmid (born 1991) studied school music and currently singing at the State University for Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart with Prof. Ulrike Sonntag. In addition to some roles in school theater, he gained his passion for singing primarily from his male vocal ensemble MA'cappella from the Heidenheim region, which he founded during his school days and which still gives concerts in southern Germany and has so far filled halls such as the Heidenheim Congress Center with up to 1,300 people. At international ensemble competitions, they won several gold diplomas in Malaga and Bad Ischl. Through his studies he is multi-layered and in
active in different areas of music in and around Stuttgart. He sings in the Stuttgart Chamber Choir under the direction of Frieder Bernius, with whom he is on international concert tours. Among other things, he leads the Chamber Choir of the State Ministry of Stuttgart. As a soloist, he is mainly active as a concert singer in the Stuttgart area. In 2019 he could be heard in the zdf TV service. In addition to his main subject lessons, he received further impulses from master classes with Margreet Honig, Marie Helle and Susanne Gauchel.

Doriana Tchakarova

Doriana Tchakarova completed her bachelor 's and master' s degree in piano with Prof. Fernande Kaeser and Prof. Friedemann Rieger at the Stuttgart Music Academy and studied in the lied class of Prof. Konrad Richter. Since 2003 she has been teaching at the Stuttgart University of Music. In April 1993 she won second prize at the international piano competition "Dimitar Nenov" in Razgrad. In the same year she played Sergej Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto with the Varna Philharmonic. In July 2001, she and the cellist Krassimira Krasteva won a prize in the chamber music category of the 15th international "Franz Schubert" competition. The international prizewinner is active as an international concert artist
Song pianist. Recitals with her singing partner Konstantin Krimmel take her to major international concert stages. Together with Konstantin Krimmel, she won 1st prize in the song duo category at the “Rising stars Grand Prix international music competition” in Berlin in May 2018. Her highly acclaimed CD recordings led to an Echo nomination in 2017. In 2019 she released a CD with Konstantin Krimmel on the renowned Alpha Classics label with ballads by Schubert, Loewe, Schumann and Jensen.

Merlind Constanze Pohl, mezzo-soprano

Germany

The mezzo-soprano Merlind Constanze Pohl (born 1995) received her first singing lessons at the age of eight. After she finished high school at the state high school
for music in Wernigerode, she initially devoted herself to the concert and oratorio repertory. In her many years of choral experience, she met conductors such as Peter Schreier, Michael Sanderling, Ludwig Güttler, Hans-Christoph Rademann and Simone Young. Merlind C. Pohl has won multiple prizes at the national youth music competition. During her studies at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater, in the class of KS Prof. Michaela Kaune, she took part in various opera and drama productions. She sang the role of Cherubino from Mozart's opera 'Le nozze di Figaro' under the direction of Ulrich Windfuhr and worked with young directors such as Rieke Süßkow and Matthias Piro. During her studies, she deepened her knowledge of historical performance practice and baroque singing and worked together with singers such as Mark Tucker and Vivica Genaux, as well as the Pianist Arthur Schoonderwoerd, specialist in fortepiano. In addition, Merlind Pohl cultivates the Lied-genre and organizes regular recitals with her pianists Angie Rosselin Chan and Helene Popovic. She received important musical impulses in the lied class of Prof. Burkhardt Kehring and through master classes, among others with KS Peter Schreier and KS Roman Trekel.
Merlind Pohl is a scholarship holder of the 'Young Musicians Foundation', the 'Yehudi Menuhin LMN' and the 'Gisela Bartels Foundation'. As part of the international Saxon singer academy in June 2018, she received the 'Economic Promotion Prize' from the city of Torgau. In 2019 Merlind Pohl was awarded the Richard Wagner Scholarship from the City of Hamburg.

Michael Mattäus Schwarze, baritone

Claudia Fernandez Parrondo, piano

Switzerland / Spain

Michael Schwarz

(Born 1991) Coming from a family of musicians, Michael Matthäus Schwarze decided to learn to play the trumpet at the age of 11. Up to the age of 20 he played the trumpet in various ensembles and youth orchestras in Lucerne and Zug. He received his first singing lessons at the age of 19 from Barbara Zinniker at the Zug Music School. Soon he discovered his special love for the German song. After high school, he decided to study Protestant theology in Bern, which he completed with a bachelor's degree in 2017. Parallel to his studies, he received singing lessons from René Perler in Friborg, and in 2017 he was accepted into the singing class of Prof. Marcel Boone at the Hochschule für Musik in
Basel and completed his bachelor's degree this summer. Starting this autumn, Schwarze will study singing education at the ZHdK with Scot Weir. In last year's in-house opera production Don Giovanni he was seen in the role of Leporello. At the ZHdK he is playing the role of Nardo in this year's opera project La Finta Giardiniera. The song and the oratorio are very important to Michael Matthäus Schwarze. Master classes with Kurt Widmer are a valuable source of inspiration for him.

Claudia Fernandez Parrondo

She was born in 1997 in Manzanares (Spain). Between 2005 and 2015, she studied at the Conservatory of Albacete with pianists Belén Selva and Pedro Alonso Martínez. She graduated with honours in Albacete’s Conservatory. She obtained an Extraordinary Prize of Artistic Studies, the first prize in the 9th Quintanar del Rey competition and the third prize in the 13th “Diputación de Albacete” competition. Subsequently, she studied Bachelor’s Degree in “Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón” with professor Miguel Ángel Ortega Chavaldas, finishing in June of 2019 with first class honours and with the best student record of her class. She has participated in several national and international courses, such as Curso Pirineos Classic, Curso Improvisa-Salamanca, Curso para jóvenes músicos Santa María del Paular or Aurora Music Festival 2018. As a soloist, she played, in 2018, in “Patio de la Infanta” of Zaragoza, in 2019, in Huesca’s Provincial Council’s auditorium and, in 2020, in Schaffhausen “Rathauslaube”. Furthermore, she was one of the finalists of the competition of the festival “Piano Meeting 2019”. In the field of chamber music she has performed in Luis Galve Hall of Zaragoza ́s Auditorium, Patio de la Infanta and CAI Luzán’s Hall of this same city and in Juan
March Foundation’s Hall in Madrid. Nowadays, she continues studying a Master in piano performance in Basel’s Hochschule für Musik with Professor Tobias Schabenberger.

Janina Staub, soprano

Yao Hou, piano

Germany-Great Britain / China

Janina Staub

The German, Northern Irish soprano Janina Staub (born 1994) is currently a member of the opera studio in Freiburg and at the same time is taking the concert exam with Prof. Mareike Morr at the Freiburg University of Music. Before that, she completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin. Janina Staub gained stage experience as Barbarina at the Freiburg Theater in 2020, as a sandman at the Weikersheim Palace Opera, as a soprano soloist in the education project of the Potsdam Chamber Academy and as a soprano in the contemporary chamber opera "Die Voiceless" at the Deutsche Oper. 2021 it will be on
Theater Freiburg appear as Second Woman / Spirit in Dido and Aeneas, as Quartilla and Criside in Madernas Satyricon and Gretchen in the jukebox opera. Janina Staub performed in the oratorio "Elias" and in the "Mozart Requiem" 2019 in the Philharmonie Berlin under
conducted by Jörg-Peter Weigle and the Brandenburg State Orchestra. In October 2021 she will perform Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Peter Gülke / Alexander Lebek at the Philharmonie Berlin. In 2018 she was heard in cooperation with the Heidelberger Frühling in the reconstruction of the Brahms Requiem in Heidelberg. In 2016 she was a representative at a commemorative event of the First World War and made music with the Hallé Orchestra. She received important song impulses from Wolfram Rieger, Matthias Alteheld, Graham Johnson, Julius Drake and Anne Le Bozec.

Yao Hou

Yao Hou was born in Sichuan (China) in 1995 and began playing the piano at the age of five. She first attended the local music high school and later began her studies at the Sichuan University of Music. From 2014-2020 she studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg with Prof. Pi-hsien Chen and Prof. Hardy Rittner, where she completed her master's degree.
Since 2020 she has been studying song design with Prof. Matthias Alteheld. She received important impulses from master classes with Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl, Till Fellner, Alfonso Gomez, Klaus Bässler, Georg Sava, Jerome Rose and Hansjacob Staemmler.

Klaudia Tandl, mezzo-soprano

Gisela Jöbstl, piano

Austria / Austria

Claudia Tandl

The Austrian mezzo-soprano Klaudia Tandl, born on October 20th, 1986, completed two master’s degrees, including concert singing, with excellent results at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. As a graduate in 2019, Klaudia received an appreciation award from the University of Art in Graz for special achievements.
The singer devotes herself to the Lied with great passion. Together with her duo partner Gisela Jöbstl, she won the International Competition for Lied Art in Stuttgart 2018 and the III. International Schubert Competition a 3rd prize each. Song recitals take the young mezzo-soprano across Europe. In January 2020 Klaudia Tandl could be heard at the Schubertiada in Barcelona, ​​together with the pianist and lied accompanist Eric Schneider.
The collaboration with well-known ensembles such as the ensemble plus from Vorarlberg, or Kontrapunkte from Vienna, mark another focus of the singer's work: contemporary music.

Gisela Jöbstl

Austrian pianist Gisela Jöbstl is a passionate chamber musician. Together with mezzosoprano Klaudia Tandl she is a prizewinner at the 11. Internationalen Art Song Competition Stuttgart and the Schubert Competition Dortmund in 2018. Liederrecitals have led her throughout Europe. Born in Friesach, Carinthia Gisela got her first musical training at the age of five. Later she studied with Adrian Cox at the University of Music and Preforming Arts, Vienna. Important influence on her as a pianist had her studies with Julius Drake at the University of Music and Preforming Arts, Graz. She participated in masterclasses with Roger Vignoles, Robert Holl,
Helmut Deutsch, Birgid Steinberger, Olaf Bär und Ann Murray and was a scholar of the Residential Lieder Masterclass and the Schubert Institut, Baden. Since 2017 Gisela has held a senior lecture position in piano at the University of Music and Preforming Arts, Vienna.

Martha Sotiriou, mezzo-soprano

Greece

Martha Sotiriou was born in Athens, Greece (1989) and began her music studies at the age of 8. She received her diploma from the Athenaeum “Maria Callas” Conservatory with distinction. In 2016-2018 she studied opera singing at the University of Music "Carl Maria von Weber" Dresden (with KS Prof. Matthias Henneberg) where she also attended the Lied duo class of KS Olaf Bär. She has already performed Hansel in "Hansel and Gretel", "The Fox" in "The Cunning Little Fox", Annio in "La Clemenza di Tito", the 3rd lady in "The Magic Flute", and the alto part in "Messiah "sung. In 2016 she was a choir member of the Greek National Opera and from 2018-2019 she was 2nd alto of the Semperoper Dresden State Opera Choir. In the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons she was seen in the role of the psychiatrist in "Greetings from Muskau" in the Görlitz Theater. Further engagements in 2019/2020 were the children's opera “Frikadela” by the Greek composer A. Baltas and the New Year's Eve opera gala with the Athens City Orchestra. She is the winner of the 2020 International Singing Competition of the Rheinsberg Castle Chamber Opera and was invited to sing in recital and orchestral concerts in the Rheinsberg Castle Theater. Thanks to her excellent performance at the competition, she received a full scholarship from the 12th Lotte Lehmann Summer Academy. She was the semi-finalist of the Cesti competition 2020.