VIVA VOCE die a cappella Band, Russische Kammerphilharmonie St. Petersburg & Enrique Ugarte
Biography VIVA VOCE die a cappella Band, Russische Kammerphilharmonie St. Petersburg & Enrique Ugarte
Viva Voce
Ever since its beginnings in 1998, the a cappella band Viva Voce has been a very special listening experience. Merely the power of their voices creates goosebumps, and yet even this is not enough for the ensemble’s five members, who are all passionate singers. Over its past 20 years of existence, Viva Voce has become one of the most versatile a cappella formations in Germany. Through its constant musical development and openness towards new challenges and interesting projects, it is a band with many faces.The vocal artists are repeatedly honored with numerous awards, including the Hanns Seidel Foundation “Förderpreis für junge Songpoeten” (“Young song poets award“), the Bavarian Culture Prize and the Culture Award of Middle Franconia. As cultural ambassadors of their hometown Ansbach they represented the State of Bavaria at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai. In the reformation year 2017, Viva Voce has been invited by the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil to take part in a tour of the South American country from Porto Alegre to Salvador. The members of Viva Voce include: Bastian Hupfer, David Lugert, Heiko Benjes, Jörg Schwartzmanns, and Mateusz Phouthavong.
The Russian Chamber Philharmonic St Petersburg
was founded in 1990 by graduates of the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St Petersburg. The orchestra impressively refl ects the extent of the musical talent as well as the high standard of music education of its homeland. The extraordinarily broad range of repertoire – from baroque to modern – has made the orchestra one of the most sought-after chamber orchestras of Europe. The orchestra`s much admired virtuosity and particular sound quality has led to regular performances with international stars such as Mstilav Rostropowitsch, Igor Oistrach, Lina Isakadze, Mikis Theodorakis, Giora Feidman, David Garrett, Elena Bashkirowa, Andrej Gavrilov, Deborah Sasson, Nina Corti and Sergej Nakariakov. Frequent concert tours throughout Europe by the Russian Chamber Philharmonic St Petersburg have taken place to great acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. The tours have brought them to major European centres and renowned concert halls, including the Teatro Real Madrid, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Kurhaus Wiesbaden, the Cologne Cathedral, the Teatro dell`Opera di Roma, the Gasteig Munich, the Opera Bayreuth, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Theatre Municipal Luxemburg as well as to many international festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein and Rheingau music festivals in Germany, the Izmir International Festival in Turkey, the Festival Musique en Vendée in France and the Music Summer Weggis in Switzerland. Recent appearances by the orchestra with the opera and ballet soloists of the Moscow Bolschoi Theatre and the Mariinski Opera in St Petersburg have been greeted with enthusiastic response and international admiration.
Enrique Ugarte
Born in the Basque municipality of Tolosa, Spain, Enrique Ugarte started playing accordion when he was four years old. He composed his first song when he was six and he gave his first public concert in front of 1,500 listeners when he was seven. Enrique Ugarte studied accordion, oboe and composition at the “Conservatorio Superior de Música“ of San Sebastián. Afterwards, he studied composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, graduating from the master class. He also studied conducting with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich and Mainz as well as with Ernst Schelle in France. Today, the maestro works with world-renowned orchestras such as the Basque National Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the NDR Radio Philharmonie and the WDR Radio Orchestra. He regularly performs as a conductor and accordionist in the largest concert halls in Europe, including the philharmonic halls in Berlin, Munich and Cologne as well as the Vienna Konzerthaus. Ugarte has also performed together with artists such as Chick Corea, Giora Feidman and Till Brönner and has appeared a guest in many television and radio programs in Germany, Spain and Russia. Numerous CD recordings document his extensive work. He has orchestrated more than 60 national and international film soundtracks, including The Miracle of Bern and Pope Joan, and participates regularly in various projects as an orchestrator and conductor. From 2003 to 2006 he was musical director of the Schlossfestspiele in Ettlingen. He also conducted the Basque National Orchestra together with Mike Oldfield as part of the premiere of the composer’s work “Music of the Spheres“.
