The Valletta International Baroque Festival continues today with two concerts, one at St Nicholas (All Souls) church and one at the Manoel Theatre.
The former will be a performance by Reiko Ichise of Magical Viola da Gamba.
Reiko was born in Tokyo and began her musical training as a pianist. She read musicology at the Kunitachi College of Music where she started playing the viola da gamba, having lessons with Yukimi Kanbe and Tetsuya Nakano.
In 1991, she went to Britain to study gamba with Richard Boothby, winning the foundation scholarship at the Royal College of Music. While there, she won the concerto prize and completed her post graduate study with distinction. Since leaving the RCM, she has established herself as one of the leading gamba players in the UK, appearing in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Opera House as a chamber musician, orchestral player and soloist. She has worked with many leading conductors and orchestras including Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, Sir David Willcocks and the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, Kurt Masur and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music.
On the other hand, the Manoel will host mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux and soprano Simone Kermes in their performance of the Rival Queens, which explores the artistic legacies of the two legendary singers (Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni) and the heights of inspiration to which their much-feted competition moved the important composers of the era.
Genaux garnered prestigious prizes including Pittsburgh Opera’s Maecenas Award in 2008, New York City Opera’s 2007 Christopher Keene Award, and a 1997 ARIA Award, Vivica now enjoys sharing her experience, knowledge, and passion for music with younger singers via masterclasses and teaching opportunities.
In the course of her extraordinary career to date, Vivica has collaborated with many of the world’s most respected artists, ensembles, and conductors and has appeared on the greatest stages. Only three years into her international career, she debuted at The Metropolitan Opera in 1997 in her most-performed role, Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Kermes studied under professor Helga Forner at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig.
Opera performances have taken her as Konstanze, the Queen of the Night, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna, Giunia, Rosalinde, Lucia, Gilda, Ann Truelove, Alcina and Laodice, among other roles, to New York, Paris, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Moscow, Beijing and German state opera houses. She has given solo concerts and lieder evenings all over Europe, as well as in the US, Australia, the Sultanate of Oman, China, Russia, Mexico and Japan.
■ Magical Viola da Gamba will take place at St Nicholas (All Souls) church in Valletta at 12.30pm.
The Rival Queens will take place at the Manoel Theatre at 7.30pm.
For more information and tickets, visit vallettabaroquefestival.com.mt. The festival runs until January 28 and this space will carry information on daily events throughout.