Jury Commission – 21st International Chamber Singing Competition – Associazione Corale Goriziana "C. A. Seghizzi"

Associazione Corale Goriziana C.A. Seghizzi is pleased to introduce the jury of the 21st International Chamber Singing Competition “Seghizzi”.

Jury's President

Eddi De Nadai (Italia)

Eddi De Nadai is an associate conductor at the following institutions: Teatro la Fenice in Venice, Staatsoper in Hannover, Verdi in Trieste, Lirico Sperimentale in Spoleto and Sociale in Trento. He graduated in piano and harpsichord at the Venice Conservatory and he studied conducting with Romolo Gessi, Donato Renzetti, Lior Shambadal and Deyan Pavlov.

A passionate connoisseur of Lied and vocal chamber music, as a pianist he studied with Erik Werba, Elly Ameling and Rudolph Jansen.

He has been a guest conductor at the Izmir Opera House and, from 2009 up to the present, he’s been invited at the Bolshoi Theatre in Tashkent as referent for the Italian opera repertoire, too.

De Nadai carries out an intense activity of collaboration with prestigious orchestras (Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, City of Ferrara, Mitteleuropa Orchestra, Slovenian Radio and Television, Cordoba Symphony, Orpheus Kammerorchester Wien, Bacau Philharmonic, Odessa Philharmonic, Kiev String’s Orchestra, Albanian Radio and Television, Opera of Belgrade and Ljubljana, Astana Opera) and important soloists such as Bruno Canino, Rocco Filippini, Enrico Pieranunzi, Luciana D’Intino and Katia Ricciarelli. Furthermore, he directs a wide symphonic and opera repertoire in Italy and abroad.

He conducted Nabucco and Aida at the Taormina Opera Stars, Madama Butterfly at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, The little sweep by Britten at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa, La Cecchina by Piccinni and Maria de Buenos Aires in Piazzolla at the Teatro Comunale in Treviso.

He inaugurated MittelFest 2016 in Cividale with the world premiere of Menocchio by R. Miani and he conducted the world premiere of Mauro Montalbetti’s Still Requies at the Milan Triennale and at the Teatro Grande in Brescia.

Eddi De Nadai is the founder and artistic director of the Ensemble Orpheus, which is dedicated to the instrumental literature of the 20th Century.

He is also the creator and artistic director of the project “All’Opera, ragazzi!” for the divulgation of the contemporary opera repertoire for young people, now in its 14th edition.

Over the last few years, De Nadai has produced and conducted:

ll vestito nuovo dell’Imperatore by Paolo Furlani, Arcibaldo Sonivari by Mario Pagotto, The little sweep by Benjamin Britten, La Fuggitiva by Lucio Gregoretti, La notte di San Silvestro by Renato Miani, The Wizard of Oz and The Little Prince by Pierangelo Valtinoni, Racconto di Natale by Carlo Galante

Cooperator of internationally renowned singers, he has performed concerts for prestigious institutions and important festivals throughout Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, Argentina, Mexico and the United States.

From 2002 to 2010 he was the official pianist at the International Chamber Music Competition for Solo Voice in Gorizia. He taught piano at several Italian conservatories, most recently at the Conservatory of Milan.

Jury

Pia Brodnik (Slovenia)

Soprano Pia Brodnik dedicated her creative musical life to performing throughout her native Slovenia and across Europe in opera houses in Slovenia, Switzerland and Czech Republic, at numerous international festivals in Germany, Croatia, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Belgium, Montenegro etc., with renowned artists, such as bass-baritone Marcos Fink, violinist Sylvie Gazeau, pianists Marina Horak and Charles Spencer, conductors Anton Nanut, Dejan Savić, Claude Villaret, Lior Shambadal, Wolfgang Schmidt, John Axelrod, with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Opera Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and many others. She has recorded solo CDs of songs by Chopin, Duparc, Ipavec, Lajovic, Sacred songs, Slovenian folk songs, major soprano arias from all Puccini operas Vissi d’arte and the contemporary Slovenian opera, The Name on the Tip of the Tongue. In addition, a number of solo recordings of operas, arias, songs and live concerts can be found in the archives of Radio and Television of Slovenia and elsewhere.

Pia Brodnik is professor of voice at the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana, where she also served as Head of Voice department for almost ten years. She wrote the new curriculum for voice studies for the Bologna reform and was the professional reviewer for domestic and foreign curriculum. She regularly conducts master classes, summer schools and seminars, and adjudicates at international singing competitions. Her students are soloists at opera houses in Slovenia and abroad (Stockholm, Trieste, Versailles, Paris, Rijeka, Zagreb, Split).

She is a founding member of the Slovenian Association of Teachers of Singing (DSPP), a member of EVTA as well as NATS.

Pia Brodnik is a graduate in Voice Performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada in the class of dr. David Falk, and Music pedagogy from the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana.

She is the recipient of many awards, including The Golden Plaque of University of Ljubljana, Award of the Municipality of Domžale, the Honorary member of Slovenian Association of Teachers of Singing and the Golden Linhart Badge of Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities, among others.

Angelo Nicastro (Italy)

Angelo Nicastro, born and raised in Romagna, graduated from Dante Alighieri High School in Ravenna with a classical high school diploma, a diploma in Viola from the Bologna Conservatory and a degree in Philosophy with a thesis on music education from the University of Bologna. He further explored the study of string quartet with Professor Enzo Porta, perfecting himself at the Fiesole School of Music directed by Piero Farulli.

In 1983 he founded the Accademia Bizantina to which he devoted himself both as a musician and as artistic director and coordinator, leading it to become one of the most internationally accredited Italian ensembles, establishing close collaborations with great artists; particularly strong was the parternship with composer Luciano Berio, who later became its honorary president.

Until 1998, he organized with the Accademia Bizantina an intense series of performances in prestigious events and venues in Italy and abroad, as well as numerous labels recordings for the Denon, Frequenz and Arts; He also pursued teaching positions as Viola and Quartet teacher at Istituti Musicali Parificati. In 1998 he accepted the position as Co-Artistic Director of Ravenna Festival and Artistic Director of the Opera and Dance Seasons of Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, conceiving and developing numerous projects.

He coordinated the initiative on the “Neapolitan School” wanted by Maestro Riccardo Muti, aimed at the rediscovery and valorization of the musical, opera and sacred heritage of the Neapolitan 700s. Being the product of a collaboration between Ravenna Festival and the Pfingstfestspiele in Salzburg, the project led to numerous productions staged in major European theaters such as the Paris Opera and the Opera Real in Madrid.

He is frequently convoked as a jury member in international opera competitions, holds seminars and masters in the field of artistic education.

Since 2012, he has been Artistic Director of the Renata Tebaldi Foundation, which promotes the international opera competition named after the great soprano. He collaborates with the Italian Opera Academy inaugurated in 2015 by maestro Riccardo Muti.

Stephan Genz (Germany)

Stephan Genz is a German baritone, born in Erfurt, GDR, in 1973. At the age of 8, he joined the St. Thomas boys’ choir in Leipzig where he remained a “Thomaner” until 1991.

He then pursued his studies with Hans-Joachim Beyer at the Leipzig Conservatory, Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll at the Karlsruhe Conservatory, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in Zurich.
He earned his first successes by winning the international competition “Johannes Brahms” in Hamburg (1994) and “Hugo Wolf” in Stuttgart (1994). In 1998, he got awarded the “Brahms-Preis” of Schleswig-Holstein and in 2000, he was elected “Young Artist of the Year” by the Belgian Critics.

Recognized for his interpretations of Lied and German repertoire, he divides his career between opera, recitals and concerts. He sang on international stages such as the Berlin Staatsoper, the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Bastille Opera, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Châtelet in Paris, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Bolshoi in Moscow as well as on the stages of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne, the Opéra Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Louvre in Paris, the Alice Tully Hall, Frick Collection and Rockefeller Center in New York, the City Opera, Oji Hall and Suntory Hall in Tokyo and in numerous the festivals including the Edinburg festival, the Schubertiade (Feldkirch, Hohenems, Schwarzenberg), the festival d’Aix-en- Provence, the Maggio Musicale Firenze, the festival de Zermatt and the festival de Verbier.

He worked under the direction of conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Myung-Whun Chung, Gerd Albrecht, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas
Hengelbrock, Gustav Kuhn, Sigiswald, Kuijken, Rene Jacobs, Jesus Lopez-Coboz, Fabio Luisi, Georges Pretre, Bruno Bartoletti, Kent Nagano, Jeffrey Tate, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Masur, Eliahu Inbal, Mario Venzago and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Stephan Genz released more than 50 recordings. His recital CD’s got awarded international prizes such as the “Gramophone Award”, the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”, the “Platinum Timbre” and several “Diapason d’Or”.

Since October 2020, he is responsible for teaching Lied and Oratorio at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He divides his time between Geneva, Salzburg and Paris, where he teaches German repertoire at the Conservatoire National de Paris.

Amelia Felle (Italy)

Born in Bari, she graduated with honors in both Principal Piano and Singing from the “N.Piccinni” Conservatory. At the same time, she performed studies in Architecture.

She made her debut in Bari in 1981 at only 19 years of age as a soprano with the Bari Province Symphony Orchestra in oratorios by Vivaldi and Pergolesi. She won the International Lieder Competition in Finale Ligure and the “Voci Nuove per la Lirica A. Belli” in Spoleto. Under the guidance of soprano Maria Vittoria Romano (special prize at the Mozarteum in Salzburg).

Here she debuted in the principal roles of “Elisir d’amore”, “Don Pasquale”, and “Nozze di Figaro” directed by Gigi Proietti. In that same period, she made her debut in Sicily in “Lucia di Lammermoor” for the Materano Festival in “Nina e Lindoro” by G. B. Duni (dir. Rino Marrone), at the Rome Opera in “L’Elisir d’amore” and at the Teatro Argentina in Rome in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” by G. Rossini. She then made her debut, again at the Rome Opera, in the role of Donna Anna in W. A. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” under the baton of Peter Maag, an opera that she then repeated in Brescia and Bergamo with the winners of the Pavarotti Competition and A.S.L.I.C.O. With Maestro Gelmetti, she was Sofia in Rossini’s “Il Signor Bruschino” and Lauretta in G. Puccini at the San Carlo in Naples under the direction of Roberto De Simone, with live radio broadcast (RAIDUE); she repeated Rossini’s same opera at the RUNDFUNK in Stuttgart, the Schwetzingen Festival, and the Cologne Opera (TELDECVIDEO video recording).

Also in Cologne, with live radio broadcast, she was Eurydice in Offenbach’s “Orpheus in Hell” alongside Peter Ustinov, with the Suddeutsche Rundfunk orchestra. With the same orchestra, again with live radio broadcast, she performed G. Rossini’s “Stabat Mater,” which was also repeated at the Teatro San Carlo in Lisbon and in Prague under the baton of Maestro Zedda. In the same years, she recorded a Liederistica program for the R.A.I. office of the Apulia Region, simultaneously collaborating with the Bari Symphony Orchestra for Pergolesi’s “La Serva padrona” (conducted by Rino Marrone). Conducted by Maestro Gelmetti, she recorded Mascagni’s “Le Maschere,” an opera produced by the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and also performed at the Ravenna Festival. For Philips, she recorded Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” again with Gelmetti, and again with the same maestro she performed Rossini’s “La cambiale di matrimonio” at the Monte Carlo Theater (Videoincisione Teldecvideo).

With Philips, she recorded in the role of Jemmy in Rossini’s “William Tell” from La Scala in Milan under the baton of Maestro Riccardo Muti. With the same, she sang Servilia from Mozart’s “La clemenza di Tito” in Salzburg, Cherubini’s “Lodoiska” at the Ravenna Festival and for two consecutive seasons, Nena from G. B. Pergolesi’s “Lo frate ‘nnamurato,” also at La Scala in Milan, with VideoRai recording and disc for Ricordi. At La Scala, she also appeared in Jommelli’s “Fetonte” and Puccini’s “Bohéme” in the role of Musetta, an opera replicated at La Fenice in Venice and at the Petruzzelli in Bari, directed by Zeffirelli. In Cagliari, she was Susanna in “Le nozze di Figaro”; with the R.A.I. of Naples the soprano in Rossini’s “La petite messe solemnelle” (conductor A. Zedda) In Lausanne, she sang in Rossini’s “L’occasione fa il ladro” conducted by M° B. Campanella, directed by Ponnelle. She still recorded for Ricordi “Mare nostro” by L. Ferrero, produced by the theaters of Rovigo and Treviso. For R.A.I. she recorded, live from the Foro Italico in Rome, “Das Fledermaus” by J. Strass, in the role of Rosalinde, and in London for Claves, “L’inganno felice” by Rossini. In Bologna, Piacenza, and Reggio Emilia, she was the principal soprano in Offenbach’s opera “Bluebeard.” At the Lecce Festival and in Lucca, she was Norina in Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale,” Nedda in Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s “Cosi’ fan tutte.” In Malaga and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, she made her debut in the role of Mimi’ in Puccini’s “La Bohéme.” She played the role of Amelia opposite Renato Bruson in Verdi’s “Simone Boccanegra” at Regio Di Parma, Comunale di Modena, and Comunale di Reggio Emilia.

Amelia Felle At the Rome Opera House she was the female interpreter of G. Verdi’s “Vespri siciliani” in the French version, and Manon in Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” in the theaters of Brescia Cremona, Piacenza, and Modena (conductor M°Arena). At the Teatro Regio di Parma and the Comunale di Bologna, she was Elisabetta in G. Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” alongside N. Ghiaurov; at the Arena di Verona she still debuted in Amelia from Verdi’s “Un ballo in maschera,” conducted by M° Daniel Oren. At the Dresden Festival conducted by Sinopoli, she was Aida in Verdi’s opera of the same name, and at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, she covered the role of Elvira in Verdi’s “Ernani” (Dir. M° Arena) with television reprise for the program “Prima della prima” and live radio broadcast on Rai Tre. At the Santander Festival, she made her debut in Verdi’s “Messa da requiem” which was replicated in Zagreb with live radio broadcast. Again in Bergamo, she was the soprano in Verdi’s “I due Foscari” next to Renato Bruson, with Rai Due television recording again for the “Prima della prima” program. She was the soprano in G. Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” with Maestro Gandolfi at the Auditorio G. Verdi in Milan.

She has collaborated always as a soloist for the symphonic repertoire with the Collegium Musicum of Bari and with the RAI orchestras of Milan, Rome, Naples; with the Symphony Orchestras of Bari, Lecce, Naples, Rome; with The Orchestra of the “Musical Pomeriggi” and with the “Verdi” symphonic institution of Milan; with the German Radio Television orchestras of Stuttgart and Cologne, with the Junge Philarmonie of Berlin, with the London Chamber Orchestra, with the national orchestras of Zagreb, Prague, Madrid, Lisbon, etc. She has to her credit in Taranto the staging and direction of Donizetti’s “Le convenienze e inconvenienze teatrali”. In Paola she vocally and musically prepared the cast and directed G. Puccini’s “Bohème”.

“Ercolano Opera Competition,” she performed both the direction and musical concertation of Pergolesi’s “Lo frate ‘nnamurato” and the concertation of G. Verdi’s “Traviata.” At the Duni Festival in Matera in 2005, she performed Duni’s arias written for Farinelli, as well as directed the vocal preparation and concertation of the opera “Catone in Utica,” also by Duni with text by Metastasio. With the Lecce Symphony Orchestra in 2012 and under the direction of Maestro Marcello Panni, she totally supervised (vocal study, concertation, direction, scenes, costumes) the staging of “Le nozze di Figaro” by W.A. Mozart. Opera that she staged again at the Goldoni Theater of Palazzo Altemps in Rome in June 2019 with a new cast of debutant talents. In 2013 at the Cantieri Koreja in Lecce, she vocally and directorally directed “800” Opera about the Martyrs of Otranto, composed by Maestro Francesco Libertà and performed by promising young people from the Salento area. In the same years, she was recognized during a concert she held in Civitavecchia, the “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

In 2021/2022 for Teatro Vittoria in Rome and directed by Giancarlo Nicoletti, she prepared the cast of her students for “La Bohème” by G. Puccini, which was repeated in the following months in several Italian theaters. Since 2015 and for three years, she has held a Masterclass for the winners of the “Voci nuove per la lirica” competition in Spoleto. She has held Masterclasses several times in Dublin (Royal Academy of Music), Karlsruhe, Brno, Palma de Mallorca (from 2009 to 2020), Naples, Bari, Ravenna, Lecce, Trevi, Matera, Paola, Rome, etc…

She has been awarded several times as one of the most successful Italian voices: “Targa d’oro Mario del Monaco”; “Targa d’oro Beniamino Gigli”; “Premio speciale Arena di Verona”; “Targa d’oro Tullio Serafin”; “Premio speciale Nino Rota” etc… In 2000, she is the winner of the Conservatory Professorship Competition, the specialization course for pianists and singers in Vocal Chamber Music. She has taught at the Conservatories of Bari, Foggia, and Lecce. From 2013 to the present, she has been teaching at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome. She has been teaching for 26 years, and 40+ of her students are winners of international awards such as: A.S.L.I.C.O., Premio delle Arti 2008, Strawinsky Prize, Romafestival, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Voci nuove per la Lirica di Spoleto, Ottavio Ziino, Toti dal Monte, BBC Cardiff Singer in the World, Operalia, etc.