From July 29 till August 11, 2017 with:
Carol Isaac
One of the most sought after vocal coaches in North America, Carol Isaac is currently a full time assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. She has assisted such conductors as Maestro James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Maurizio Benini, Jiri Belohlavek, Yannick Nezet- Seguin and Valery Gergiev. Read More
Norbert Baxa
Maestro Baxa is current Chief-Conductor with Theatre J.K.Tyl Plzen and has guest conducted in places such as the National Theater in Prague, and Teatro Bellini in Catania. Baxa is currently a permanent lecturer of opera conducting at the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague and the external Lecturer for the Zurich University of the Arts. Read More
Helena Kaupová
International soprano Helena Kaupova, is a singer with the National Theater in Prague and has also performed many notable roles in places such as Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney, Tel Aviv, and Hong Kong. She currently also works as a docent voice teacher at Prague Music Academy and Brno Janáček Music Academy. Read More
The European Music Academy is focused on working with singers and conductors who are both young students and those who have already begun a professional career. They will work with the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice under the guidance of internationally renowned artists with professional experience from prominent opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, National Theatre Prague, Sydney Opera House and festivals Aix-en-Provence, Wexford Festival Opera and Salzburg Festival.
Participants will have an opportunity to study two brilliant operas, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Smetana’s Prodaná nevěsta, as well as a selection of the most popular opera repertoire which will be performed at the Final Opera Gala which takes place at the prestigious Smetana Hall in the Municipal House of Prague.
The final culmination for participants of the masterclass is the Beethoven Award Prague, which will be granted to the most successful participants. The prize will also be combined with professional artistic commitments with symphonic orchestras and theaters in the Czech Republic.
To further enhance the experience of the training, participants will receive a unique cultural experience of middle Europe. The first part of the masterclass will take place in the Liechtenstein Palace in the historical centre of the city Prague, which is the seat of the Music Academy of the Performing Arts.
Rehearsals with the North Czech Philharmonic will take place in the city of Teplice. Teplice has been a famous spa resort, where Goethe met Beethoven and where Liszt and numerous other illustrious personalities such as the Austrian and German emperor enjoyed not only medical care but also concerts, opera and theatre performances.
During participant’s day off in the rehearsal period with the orchestra, based on interest, there is the possibility to organize a trip to the German city of Dresden, which is just 68 km (42 miles) away from the city Teplice.
Carol Isaac
One of the most sought after vocal coaches, prompters and repetiteurs, Carol Isaac is currently a full- time assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where she has assisted such conductors as Maestro James Levine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Maurizio Benini, Jiri Belohlavek, Yannick Nezet- Seguin and Valery Gergiev among others.
From 1995-2000 she worked at the Vancouver Opera in Canada - where she was principal coach, head repetiteur and chorus master for several productions - as well as repetiteur and coach in Santiago, Chile (Municipal Theatre); Prague, Czech Republic (Narodni Divadlo), and the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Canada. In 1999, she began assisting Maestro Donald Runnicles at San Francisco Opera where she stayed for 12 years, working as well during those years at the companies of Santa Fe, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Washington.
She made began working for the Metropolitan Opera in January 2007 and in 2011 she toured with them to Japan. This was followed by her debut that same summer at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, assisting Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen. She made her debut in 2013 at the Festival International d'Art Lyrique in Aix-en-Provence, France; and at La Scala in Milan, Italy; for Patrice Chereua's legendary last opera production, again assisting Esa-Pekka Salonen.
A specialist in Czech operatic repertoire she has assisted Czech conductors Jiri Belohlavek and Jiri Kout - as well as Sir Charles Mackerras, whom she assisted several times in San Francisco as well as for his course on Janacek operatic roles in Aldeburgh, England with soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom. In 2004, the 150th anniversary of Janacek's birth, she presented a number of recitals in the US devoted to the music of Janacek, including at the prestigious Gilmore International Keyboard Festival with tenor Jay Hunter Morris. She continues to assist on all the Czech operas at the Metropolitan Opera.
She is an active educator, working annually at various universities such as the University of Toronto (in Toronto, Canada - as well as Sulmona, Italy) the University of British of Columbia, the Young Artist program for Vancouver Opera and Calgary Opera companies and AMU (Academie Muzickych Umeni v Praze) in Prague.
On the recital stage, Ms Isaac has toured many US cities as part of the Marilyn Horne Foundation series. She made her NY recital debut with Twyla Robinson at Merkin Hall in April 2003 and they went on to make their European recital debut at Wigmore Hall in London, England in 2005. In 1999, Ms Isaac produced the soundtrack for a movie about Mario Lanza with Richard Margison and members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. This recording was nominated for a Grammy award.
Norbert Baxa
Norbert Baxa, graduated with honours from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 1998. During his studies Norbert Baxa took part in the International Bartok Courses in Szombathely, Hungary and in 1994, he won a scholarship in Murzzüschlag Austria and an opportunity to perform with the Savaria Symphonic Orchestra. At the same time, Norbert Baxa was also conducting the orchestra of the theatre in Karlin, the North Bohemian Symphony orchestra in Teplice, the Symphony Orchestra in Hradec Kralove, the Western Bohemian Symphony in Marianske Lazne, Janacek’s Symphony orchestra in Ostrava and the Talich chamber orchestra.
In 1996, with the cooperation of other young artists, he established a chamber ensemble called “Club 20, “which focussed primarily on twentieth century music. In cooperation with the “Alfred ve Dvoře” theatre, the group regularly performed Igor Stravinsky’s, “A soldier’s Tale.” They took the same program to Prague, Brno and Vienna.
In 1998 he received the position of conductor of the North Bohemian Opera and Ballet in Usti nad Labem and was promoted to head of the opera division for the 1999 season. At the age of 24, he was the youngest ever to be appointed head of an opera company, in the history of the Czech Republic.
Since 2002 Norbert Baxa has closely worked with the Prague Chamber Opera Ensemble with which he has travelled and performed internationally, performing many works including G.F. Handel’s Xerxes.
Aside from his work in the Czech Republic, Norbert Baxa has guest conducted in Germany, Finland, Spain, Holland, Schwitzerland and Japan. As a guest conductor he has worked in the National Theatre Prague, Teatro Massimo Bellini Catania, Vancouver Opera Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Czech Opera Prague, Moravian Theatre Olomouc and F.X.Šalda Theatre Liberec.
Since 2000 Norbert Baxa has been closely working with the UBC Opera Ensemble (Canada) as guest professor and is currently international guest lecturer at the University of Fine Arts in Zürich and the permanent lecturer of opera conducting at the Music Academy of Art in Prague.
Helena Kaupová
She studied piano, singing, dance, and the flute. From 1989 to 1991 she was a soloist at the Slovak National Theatre. Since 1992 she is a soloist of the National Theatre in Prague. Here she created the parts of The Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Mimi (La Boheme), Nedda (I Pagliacci), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) – for which she received the prestigious Thalia prize in 1994. Among other roles are Lisa (Queen of Spades), Micaela (Carmen) and many roles of the Czech repertoire including Marenka (Bartered Bride), Vendulka (The Kiss), Krasava (Libuse), and the title roles in Rusalka and Jenufa.
From 1989 she appeared as guest artist in many European and overseas opera houses. At the Flaamse Oper in Antwerp, COC Toronto Mimi in Puccini’s “La Boheme” and Nedda in “I Pagliacci” partnering Ben Heppner, Vancouver, B.C. as The Countess in “Le Nozze di Figaro” Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni”. In Tel Aviv the title role of “Katia Kabanova”. Santiago, Chile , Liege, Belgium, Hong Kong Festival, Lisbon, Opera Toulon, Opera Mexico City as Jenufa (Janacek). Wexford festival Rusalka.
In 2003 she sang “Glagolitic Mass” under the baton of Sir Charles Mackerras at the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the opening of the Opera House in Sydney.
She also appears in concerts both at home and abroad. Lately these included concerts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. She appeared with Czech orchestra’s like Prague’s FOK, Brno Philharmonic, as well as The Nederlands Radio Philharmonic, the BBC orchestra and others conducted by J. Belohlavek, O. Dohnanyi, J. Kout. S. Bedford, J.L. Koenig, Sir Charles Mackerras and others.
She recorded the CD of the opera “Libuse” (Krasava) and B. Martinu’s opera “The Voice of the Forest”. The latter was also filmed.
She is docent voice teacher at Prague music academy and in Brno Janáček music academy from 2006 and made masterclasses in Spain, Finland, Lithuania and Czech republic too.
We are pleased to introduce the winners of the Beethoven Award Prague 2016:
Arda Doğan - tenore
Chihiro Yazaki - soprano
Željko Andrić - baritono
Zhuorui Deng - conductor
The President of the EMA prize winners:
Anastasia Zaytseva - soprano
Robert Bartneck - tenore
Michal Marhold - basso
Anton Legkii - conductor
