When music speaks

Ena Maria Aldecoa wrote history by being the first Filipino soprano featured in an art song recital during the Bayreuther Richard-Wagner-Festival in 2018.
Her career as art song singer started in 2015 having been elected by an interuniversity jury as one of the eight stars (voice and instruments) in the Rising Stars! Festival in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). Her international career started when Swiss conductor Mario Venzago selected her as one of two featured soloists—the other a regular opera singer with massive voice—to sing the part of Marie in Alban Berg’s “Drei Bruchstücke” from “Wozzeck.” She was able to win points by her skillfully managed and highly expressive voice management.
In 2012 she sang the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s “Ishmaela’s White World” during the 21. Europäische Kulturtage Karlsruhe under the baton of Gérard Buquet. To the amazement of conductor and composer she walked on stage having decided to sing this very difficult composition without a score.
She studied under Prof. Mitsuko Shirai and Prof. Hartmut Höll, two of the most outstanding Lied-Duos and pedagogues in the history of Art Song in the second half of the twentieth century. Enthralled by her range of voice, phenomenal breath control, precision of pitch, depth of interpretation and tremendous charisma on stage, living composer icons Wolfgang Rihm and Heinz Holliger embraced her singing on several occasions.
But the artist also can fascinate with classics as in Bellini’s “Ah, non credea mirarti” (Amina in “La Sonnambula”) that left many in the audience in tears at the venerable Teatro Verdi in Florence. Between 2008–2018 she gave countless art song recitals in Germany, France, Italy, and the Philippines.
She is the Chair of the Keyboard Department at the University of the Philippines College of Music since August 2015 and Artistic Director of the Art Song Academy Manila since November 2015.

For the audience in Białystok she has prepared a special programme including the works of Polish, Hungarian, Czech composers close to our hearts, as well as a revue of the most renowned Philippino composers, such as Nicanor Abelardo, Felipe Padilla De León, Manuel Velez, John August Pamintuan, or Ryan Cayabyab.

21 XII 2019

90 min

30–40 PLN

Concert Hall
Podleśna 2

Artists

Ena Maria Aldecoa—soprano
Jerzy Michał Maciejewski—piano

Programme

Karol Szymanowski—Seven Songs to Poems of James Joyce, Op. 54
No 5 “Strings in the Earth”
No 6 “Winds of May”
No 7 “Rain Has Fallen”

Franz Liszt—“Freudvoll und leidvoll” (lyr. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) S. 280/1
“O komm im Traum” (lyr. Victor Marie Hugo “Oh! Quand je dors”, tr. Peter Cornelius) S. 282/2

Fryderyk Chopin—Nocturn in B major, Op. 32 No 1 (“Lamento”)
Polish Songs, Op. 74 No 2 “Życzenie” (lyr. Stefan Witwicki)

Antonín Dvořák—Gypsy Songs, Op. 55 (lyr. Adolf Heyduk)
No 4 “Když mne stará matka” (Songs My Mother Taught Me)
No 5 “Struna naladěna” (Tune Thy Strings, Oh Gypsy)

Benjamin Britten—“Les Illuminations” Op. 18 (lyr. Arthur Rimbaud)
No 3a “Phrase”
No 5 “Marine”

***

Nicanor Abelardo—“Mutya ng Pasig” (lyr. Deogracias del Rosario)
Felipe Padilla De León—“Kay Tamis ng Buhay” from the opera “Noli me tangere” (lyr. Guillermo Tolentino based on the novel by José Rizal)
Manuel Velez—“Sa Kabukiran” (lyr. Juan Yee Benasa)
Giulio Caccini—“Ave Maria”
John August Pamintuan—“O magnum mysterium” (Gregorian Responsory)
Traditional Italian Carol “Dormi, dormi, o bel bambino”
Felipe Padilla De León—“Payapang Daigdig”
Ryan Cayabyab—“Kumukutikutitap”