Marianna Pizzolato - mezzo

Marianna Pizzolato made her debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro with Il Viaggio a Reims, becoming a reference performer for the main Rossini roles, as well as for Baroque and eighteenth century’s repertoire; she is now considered one of the foremost voices of our time. Mrs Pizzolato sang in the most prestigious theaters in the world under conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Alberto Zedda, Bruno Campanella and Daniele Gatti, just to name a few. Recent engagements include her debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai singing Verdi’s Requiem, for the opening concert of the season; Barbiere di Sivigliain Naples; Rota’s Mysterium in Rome and Naples; La Donna del Lago in Santa Fe; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Naples; La Cenerentola in Sevilla.

Plans include: Maria Stuarda and Nabucco at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; La Cenerentola in Liège; L’Italiana in Algeri in Toulouse; Tancredi in Santiago de Chile; Il Viaggio a Reims in Bad Wildbad. On the concert side, Marianna Pizzolato will perform Verdi's Requiem in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Leipzig; Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody in Palermo. After her successful return to Japan last March for a recital, she will back to Tokyo performing a solo concert in 2015, while in 2016 she will make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Mika Kares - Bass

One of the most interesting young bass of the international opera scene, the young Finnish bass Mika Kares studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Mr. Kares sings many varied roles, but in particular has made a name for himself as a performer of Verdi, Wagner and Mozart. From 2005, until the end of the 2010 season, he was an ensemble member with Baden State Opera. Guest performances have taken him worldwide to places including Seattle, Hong Kong, Salzburg, Rome, Paris and Valencia, where he has performed under the baton of many great conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Paolo Carignani and Marc Minkowski.

Mika Kares had recently done his Italian debut as Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and at the Teatro Regio di Parma as Massimiliano Moor in I Masnadieri . Among other recent engagements it is worth mentioning: Mozart’s Requiem with the Wiener Philarmoniker and Don Giovanni in Vienna; Le Nozze di Figaro and Stabat Mater in Tampere; he participated at the Evgenij Onegin production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Future plans include La favorita (Balthazar) at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich; Le Nozze di Figaro and Nabucco in Tampere; Norma, Aida and La Favorita in Munich; Le Nozze di Figaro in Vienna (Theater an der Wien);Die Zauberfloete and Boris Godunov in Savonlinna; Die Zauberfloete in Koln and at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna; Die Meistersinger von Nurberg Mozart’s Requiem in Helsinki. Active also on the concert side Mr. Kares will perform Shostakovich 14^th Symphony and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater in Tampere.