• Willa Lentza

• 17-11-2023, Friday, at 5:00 pm - Ticketed event

French instrumentalist Anaïs Gaudemard, ranked among the world’s best harpists of to-day, will perform at the Lentz Villa on 17th November 2023 at 7 p.m.

Gaudemard graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon and the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne (Master of Arts with the highest honours). She was also awarded the prize (title of ‘laureate’) and scholarship of the Fondation d'Entreprise Banque Populaire.

As an internationally renowned soloist praised for sensitive interpretations and rich sound, Gaudemard has won several major accolades, including the first prize and special award for the best performance of R. Murray Schafer’s The Crown of Ariadne at the International Harp Contest in Israel (2012), the Thierry Scherz Preis at the Sommets Musicaux festival in Gstaad (2015), the second prize and Munich Chamber Orchestra Prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich (2016), as well as an ECHO Rising Star nomination from the Philharmonie de Paris and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon (2018/2019). She has also recently been awarded the Tissier-Grandpierre Foundation prize in recognition of her major international successes as an instrumentalist.

The harpist has played with, among others, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. She has performed under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Leo Hussain, Nir Kabaretti, Emmanuel Krivine, Kazushi Ono, Leonard Slatkin, and Constantin Trinks. She has been applauded at, among others, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Kölner Philharmonie, Barbican Centre London, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Philharmonie du Luxembourg, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, BOZAR Bruxelles, Palau da Musica Catalana, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Casa da Musica Porto, the Konserthuset in Stockholm, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Apart from performing as a soloist, Gaudemard has taught masterclasses in China, Israel, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, and the United States.

Her debut album, Harp Concertos (dedicated to the music of Debussy, Boïeldieu, and Ginastera), released by Clavès Records, was nominated for the ICMA (International Classical Music Awards). Her latest CD Solo (under the Harmonia Mundi label) with works by Bach, Fauré, Hersant, Hindemith, Renié, and Scarlatti has won great public acclaim.

The singer Nadja Kristi will also perform with Anaïs Gaudemard.

Nadja Kristi studied opera singing at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin under the supervision of prof. Thomas Quasthoff. Then she was employed at the State Opera in Berlin, and then at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she specialized in dramatic roles by Verdi. Currently, she is preparing a recording of "Silent Songs" by Valentin Sylvestrov.


PROGRAMME

Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859) – Fantasia in C minor for harp, Op.35 (dedicated to the composer’s wife, the harpist Dorothea Henriette Spohr née Scheidler)

Albert Zabel (1834-1910) – La Source

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) – Songs

Elias Parish Alvars (1808-1849) – Introduction and Variations on Themes from Bellini's Opera ‘Norma’

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – Clair de lune, 1ère arabesque

David Robert Coleman (b. 1952) – Nachtstück

Philippe Hersant (b. 1948) – Bamyan

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) – Impromptu, Op.86 for harp

See you at the concert!