Gems of Vocal Chamber Music

About the event

The Mannheim-based soprano Valentina Pennino presents songs by Chopin and Mozart, accompanied by the Polish pianist Magdalena Hirsz, currently president of the F. Chopin Institute in Switzerland. Magdalena Hirsz also demonstrates her musicianship and sensitivity as a soloist with solo piano works by Chopin and Mozart.

VALENTINA PENNINO is of Italian descent and completed her vocal studies with KS Lilian Sukis at the Mozarteum University Salzburg (2006). She subsequently perfected her vocal technique with Tom Krause, Janet Perry and Luciana D'Intino. She has won numerous competitions in Europe and Japan and held scholarships from the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Live Music Now (2003–2006) and the Laboratorio Lirico del Veneto “G. Martinelli – A. Pertile” (2011). She was also selected as a member of the Ensemble Opera Studio at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa (2011).

Her role debuts include Fiordiligi, Pamina, Susanna, Musetta, Norina, Rosina, Angelina, Belinda, Despina, Livietta, Vespina, Zerlina, Blonde, Ännchen, Carmina Burana and Exsultate Jubilate. She performs in Italy, France, Japan, Russia, England, Austria, Poland and Germany – at the Berlin State Opera, the Teatro Olimpico Vicenza, the Teatro Smeraldo and “Casa Verdi” in Milan and the Ljubljana Philharmonic, among others. In 2018 she recorded the CD “Träume – The Golden Songs” with the pianist Annibale Rebaudengo. She is also well versed in contemporary music; two leading roles have already been composed for her voice: Dulcinea and Luisa Sanfelice.

MAGDALENA HIRSZ is a Polish pianist of Asian descent. She appears at numerous international festivals, including Septembre Musical, Lourmarin, Évian and Tel Aviv, and also devotes herself to unusual projects – with the Béjart Ballet or the poet David Walters, among others. She studied at the academies of music in Geneva, Warsaw, Vienna and Łódź. Her repertoire ranges from the Classical period to contemporary music, and she has recorded two CDs (R. Schumann and “Sounds of Mind”).

She teaches at the Academy of Music in Warsaw, at the Institut International de Lancy in Geneva, at St George's School Montreux and at the F. Chopin Institute in Switzerland, of which she is president. She is also founder and director of the “Winter Piano Festival” (2009–2011) and of the international Chopin competition for children in Switzerland (jeunechopin.com).

Biographies