Events Calendar
A Rare Treat: Esther Pierweijer (Mezzo Soprano) in concert with Irene Ainstein (piano) on Sunday 29 October at 4 pm at Quintinha da Música
Pieces for mezzo soprano and piano are very unusual, because as composers normally write for sopranos (so says Cecilia Bartoli, the most successful mezzo in the world). At Quintinha da Música, we are delighted that Esther has agreed to perform in the Algarve for a second time. She will be singing music by Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Brahms, Bernstein, Fauré, Ravel and Satie. Esther Pierweijer obtained her first diploma at Enschede Conservatory in the Netherlands, and then took her master's degree at both Rotterdam and Cologne Conservatories. She studied with Anne Haenen, Roberta Alexander, Alberto Ter Doest and Dieter Schweikart and for a number of years was tutored by the famous mezzo-soprano Jard van Nes. She is currently working with Sasja Hunnego and the renowned baritone Matthias Goerne, and she has followed master classes with Nancy Argenta, Ira Siff and Rudolf Jansen. Esther has won awards at various competitions in recent years, including the Euregion vocalist competition, the Young Musical talent Netherlands Foundation and the Contest for Modern Music in Weimar, Germany. In 2011, Esther won the scholarship awarded by the Dutch Wagner Association (DWA), and at the Bayreuth Festival of 2011, she was the guest of the DWA. She has performed a number of concerts for the Association and her repertoire includes works by Wagner, Mahler and Strauss. She has also appeared in various opera, operetta and musical productions and worked as soloist with conductors such as Jiggs Whigham and Maurice Luttikhuis and with The New Symphonics and the Hong Kong Philarmonic, the Dutch Symphony, and the Metropole orchestras. Esther has appeared in theatre performances with children, and accompanied by violinist Janine Jansen, she has often sung Peter Schat´s The Canto General. Esther is a frequent performer at concerts both in the Netherlands and abroad. English born Irene Ainstein won first prize in a Competition for Young Musicians after only a year of piano study. After the conclusion of High School, she entered the Superior School Het Twents Conservatorium where she obtained diplomas in Chamber Music, and as Accompanist and Soloist. Irene has played in a number of ensembles and orchestras and has performed in Holland, Germany, England and China. She has also made recordings and participated in several festivals and master classes in Germany, England and Holland. Irene is Education Director at the Conservatório Regional in Faro and she continues to perform in concert with: members of the Orchestra of Algarve; Hungarian violinist, Édua Zadory; fellow Dutch pianists Marlies van Gent, Inge Lulofs and Frank Fahner (40 fingers piano); and as accompanist with singers Birgit Wegemann, Olga Heikkila and Esther Pierweijer. Since 2010, she has used her home near Tavira to host chamber music concerts, and without her continuing cooperation this annual concert series could not exist.
Esther Pierweijer
Irene Ainstein
P r o g r a m m e €25
Clara Schumann Ich stand in dunklen Traumen
(1819 - 1896) Sie liebten sich beide
Robert Schumann Seit ich ihn gesehen
(1810 - 1856)
Johannes Brahms Gypsy Songs (op 103)
(1833 - 1897)
Gabriel Fauré Les Berceaux
(1845 - 1924) Après un Reve
I N T E R V A L
Maurice Ravel Cinq Melodies Populaires Grecques
(1875 - 1937)
Leonard Bernstein I hate music
(1918 - 1990)
Erik Satie La diva de l´empire
(1866 - 1925) Je te veux
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