German Ambassador hosts chamber music concert
GERMAN Ambassador Gordon Kricke hosted a night of exemplary music at his residence on August 2 with world- class artists from Germany and the Philippines – Matias de Oliveira Pinto on cello, Mariel Ilusorio on piano, and soprano artist Andión Fernandez.
Guests from the diplomatic corps, Philippine government, business, development and culture circles were enthralled with performances of both classical and contemporary music. The performed pieces include masterpieces from Heitor Villa-Lobos, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, and modern compositions by Jeffrey Ching, as well as Kundiman ni Schumman as arranged by Jeffrey Ching.
Renowned cellist, Matias de Oliveira Pinto was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and is currently based in Germany. At the age of 18, he became the student of Zygmut Kubala, a music professor at the University of Music in Curitiba, Brazil. He further polished his talent under the supervision of Eberhard Finke, principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
He has also trained with Csaba Onzcay at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and with Antonio Meneses, Gerhard Mantel, William Perth and Paul Tortelier. Beside his solo, chamber and festival performances in South America, Europe, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, de Oliveira Pinto is also a dedicated professor at the Hanns Eisler Music University in Berlin.
Mariel Ilusorio, an outstanding Filipina pianist, was a 1st prize winner for Category A of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA). After having studied at the prestigious The Julliard School in New York, she received her Bachelor of Music Studies at Ohio’s Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She continued her artistic career when she moved to Germany and lived there for ten years. Under the guidance of conductor, classical pianist and eminent piano pedagogue Arie Vardi at the State Academy of Music in Hannover, she received a diploma in künstlerischeAusbildung (artistic education or training), as well as a Soloist Diploma. She has won several international prizes, including the special prize at the 14th RinalSalo Gallo International Competition in Italy, Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona, the East Friesland Piano Prize in 1999 in Germany and the grand prize in the Carlo Soliva International Piano Competition 2000.
Andión Fernandez is a Spanish-Filipina soprano who was born in Manila. She is a graduate of the Universität der Künste in Berlin, studied voice with Karan Armstrong and contemporary music with Aribert Reimann, and was a soloist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 2001 to 2010.
She is a prizewinner of Operalia International Opera Competition, Hamburg, and the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. She has sung in the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, the Festspielhaus in Baden Baden, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Gulbenkian Auditorium in Lisbon, the Kallang Theatre and Victoria Theatre in Singapore, the Glazunov Hall in St. Petersburg, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Fernandez excels in the art song repertoire of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Philippines, to which she devotes several recitals in Europe and Asia every year.