Author:
No.6/2023
of opera charm magazineINTRODUCTION
Deun Lee is establishing himself as one of the most promising conductors of the new generation. In an interview by Cristina Fieraru, he talks about his interesting journey, the conductors & teachers who marked his musical style, his thoughts on competitions, and shares some advice for young conductors.
BIOGRAPHY
Deun Lee graduated in Piano major (under M° Silvia Rumi) and Voice major (under M° Vittorio Terranova) both at Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi di Milano. Afterword, he graduated Voice major at Accademia Chigiana di Siena (under M° Renato Bruson), Master degree and PSD diploma in Voice major at Mannes College in New York (under Prof. Arthur Levy). Deun Lee obtained Master degree in Orchestra Conducting at Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi di Milano under Maestro Vittorio Parisi with highest mark and Honors. Deun Lee conducted numerous operas and symphonic repertoire as principal conductor, including wide range of classical to contemporary repertoire including: Elisir d’amore, La Bohéme, Un Ballo in Maschera, Gianni Schicchi, Cavalleria Rusticana, Turandot, Il Trovatore, La Cambiale di Matrimonio (Festival Rossini 150), Rigoletto, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Italiana in Algeri, Gounod’s Faust, Carmen, Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Stravinsky’s Petrushka 1911, Orff’s Carmina Burana in different places and theaters such as: Lincoln Center Bruno Walter Auditorium, The DiMenna Center, LeFrak Concert Hall, Jersey City Hall, Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall (Where he also had his Solo Tenor Recital), Seoul Arts Center, Teatro Coccia di Novara, Teatro Mancinelli di Orvieto, Teatro Dal Verme di Milano, Sala Verdi di Milano, Teatro Elfo Puccini di Milano, Teatro Castagnoli di Scansano, Teatro Carcano di Milano, Teatro San Cristoforo di Milano, Teatro sull’acqua di Sassetta, Teatro Lirico di Magenta, Théâtre Ledoux de Besancon, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Vigadó Concert Hall, Amphitheatre Ioannis Despotopoulos, Kocertsalen Alsion, State Opera Stara Zagora, Danube Palace and Palatului Cutural. Deun Lee conducted and experienced different style and lots of professional orchestras such as: Orchestre Victor HugoFranche Comté, Orchestre national de Lyon, Leipziger Symphonie, Arad Philharmonic Orchestra, Athens Philharmonia, New York Classical Symphony orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic orchestra, Budapest MAV Symphony, Danubia Orchestra, Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester, Danube Symphony orchestra, Bucharest Symphony, Filarmonica della Scala, LaVerdi orchestra, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, Berlin Sinfonietta, Orchestra Cupididas, Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina, Ensemble Testori, Brescia MasterOrchestra, Prime Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic and Orchestra del Conservatorio di Milano. Deun Lee was selected as assistant conductor under maestro Alessandro Ferrari, for the production of Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn Bartholdy for Sound, Music! 2019 season of Filarmonica della Scala, which was a collaboration with Conservatrio Giuseppe Verdi di Milan, where he prepared the Orchestra del Conservatorio di Milano with Filarmonica della Scala orchestra musicians. He also worked as assistant conductor at Opéra de Lille, Varna State Opera, Teatro Lirico di Magenta, Teatro Coccia di Novara, Teatro Spazio89 di Milano for different opera productions and concerts at Budapest Festival Orchestra and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken. Deun Lee gives masterclasses to conducting, voice and opera coach classes in Italy, South Korea and Greece, and also the Artistic Director and orchestra conductor at Bell’Opera Festival in Italy and will be invited to different opera titles, Don Giovanni, L’Italiana in Algeri, Il Trovatore, Faust and on with Filarmonica Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Korean National Opera, Morellino Festival and on.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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