In addition to this successful involvement, in cooperation with the Salzburg Festival, the culture brand Montblanc will be launching a new, international opera project: From 2008, the Young Singers Project powered by Montblanc will offer selected young talents the unique opportunity, throughout the entire duration of the Salzburg Festival, to not only train their voice and acting skills, but also to work with big names of the opera world, to take part in rehearsals, rehearse parts and, if required, to even get involved on the opera stage as an understudy.
Salzburg Festival 2008
Since 2002, Montblanc has been the project sponsor of the Salzburg Festival and is financing every year the Young Directors Project, a theatre competition for international directors and their ensembles.
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Lang Lang™ at the Salzburg Festival 2008
On Monday 28th, two of the world's leading pianists joined for a concert: Lang Lang™ and the Argentinean Daniel Barenboim. Both played compositions of Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók and Franz Liszt.
The concert was followed by a champagne reception given in the honour of the artist and chairman of the Montblanc Cultural Foundation Lang Lang™. Only selected guests were invited to see Lang Lang™ receiving a Montblanc Nightfliht Document Case. Opera singer and initiator of Montblanc's latest cultural project, the Young Singers Project, was given the donation pen "Arturo Toscanini" by Ingrid Roosen-Trinks (Director Montblanc Cultural Foundation).
Young Singers Project
Premiere at the Salzburg Festival 2008
The newly launched Young Singers Project is personally supervised by the two opera stars Michael Schade and Barbara Bonney and actively supported by Theatre Manager Prof. Jürgen Flimm, Festival President Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler and Head of Artistic Administration Evamaria Wieser.
A total of 11 young and highly talented singers from all over the world will be invited to Salzburg. The candidates were selected on an international level from more than 200 entrants in auditions in New York, London, Toronto and Salzburg.
In addition to the working sessions, there will be six master classes that are open to the public. These will take place between 24.7.2008 and 21.8.2008 in the university hall of the Salzburg Mozarteum and will be held by Christa Ludwig, Barbara Bonney and Michael Schade, Jürgen Flimm, Thomas Quasthoff, Franz Grundheber and Malcolm Martineau. The highlight of the Young Singers Project is the final concert as part of the Montblanc Young Singers Gala, which will be held with the participation of the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and conducted by Maestro Ivor Bolton on 27 August 2008. In this concert, all 11 “stars of tomorrow” will once again introduce themselves and present their voices.
Young Singers Project
at the Salzburg Festival
Final concert
On Wednesday, the 27th of August, 2008, at 6:00 p.m. the highlight of the Young Singers Project powered by Montblanc took place in the Mozarteum in Salzburg: at the final concert the 11 talented young singers Ezgi Kutlu (Turkey), Levente Molnár (Hungary), Angela Kerrison (Botswana), Joel Prieto (Spain), Ekaterina Sadovnikova (Russia), Viktor Rud (Ukraine), Lauren Segal (South Africa), Thorsten Büttner (Germany), Aundi Marie Moore (USA), Jekaterina Tretjakova (Lithuania) and Shen Yang (China) presented the results of their work in the masterclasses of the last two months.
With an impressive program from different operas, accompanied by the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg conducted by Ivor Bolton: Don Giovanni, Romeo and Julia and The Magic Flute. 600 guests enjoyed the two-hour concert at the Mozarteum. This program is personally supervised by the two opera stars Michael Schade and Barbara Bonney, who are working closely with Professor Jürgen Flimm, former professor of drama at Hamburg University and Evamaria Wieser, the festival's artistic administrator.
Among the guests were Joan Collins and her husband Percy Gibson, Montblanc Brand Ambassadors Katherine Jenkins and Mojca Erdmann as well as actor Clemens Schick.
Please catch a glimpse of the pictures of this gala concert at the Young Singers Project tab.
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Lang Lang™ at the Salzburg Festival 2008
Click the thumbnails above to see a larger view of images taken at the piano concerts' followed reception.
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Ingrid Roosen-Trinks (Director Montblanc Cultural Foundation),
Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler (President Salzburg Festival) and Lang Lang™
Young Singers Project 2008
Click the thumbnails above to see a larger view of images taken at the final concert of "Young Singers Project 2008" on wednesday, 27th of August 2008.
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Simone Young (general music manager and director Staatsoper Hamburg), Michael Schade (Initiator of Young Singers Project) and Mojca Erdmann (Montblanc brand ambassador)
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Katherine Jenkins (Montblanc brand ambassador), Annette Dasch, Norbert Platt (CEO Compagnie Financière Richemont SA) and Joan Collins
