Andreas Scholl Vocal Masterclass

A Grammy-nominated artist, Andreas Scholl has won numerous awards and prizes, including the Cultural Prize of the State of Hessen, which he received alongside his wife, pianist Tamar Halperin. His accolades also include the ECHO Award, the Gramophone Award, and the Edison Award. He was the first countertenor ever to perform at the Last Night of the Proms.

Throughout his career, spanning three decades, Scholl has released a series of exceptional solo recordings including Wanderer—a disc of German Lied in collaboration with Tamar Halperin; O Solitude—an album of Purcell works with Accademia Bizantina, which won the 2012 BBC Music Magazine award, Arias for Senesino, Heroes—a disc of arias by Handel, Mozart, Hasse and Gluck; Robert Dowland’s A Musicall Banquet; Arcadia—a collection of rare and unpublished cantatas by composers from Rome’s Arcadian Circle; Wayfaring Stranger—a selection of specially arranged English and American folk songs with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; Bach cantatas with Kammerorchester Basel and Vivaldi motets with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, all of which are released on Decca. His discography also includes recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, such as Handel’s Solomon and Saul with Paul McCreesh and for Harmonia Mundi, including Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater; Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo; and Crystal Tears—lute and consort songs by John Dowland. His DVD releases include productions of Giulio Cesare (for both Decca and Harmonia Mundi), Rodelinda (Warner) and Partenope (Decca). Small Gifts of Heaven, a collection of arias for alto voice by JS Bach bookended by two of the Brandenburg concertos, is a collaboration with Dorothee Oberlinger and Ensemble 1700, released on Sony.

Recent and upcoming touring highlights include concert performances of Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Opéra Royal de Versailles with Cecilia Bartoli, Vivaldi and Bach programmes in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and tours of Pergolesi´s Stabat Mater with the ensemble Divino Sospiro in Madrid, and with Barrocada ensemble in Israel and Türkiye. He will also perform a tour with works by Tuma and Händel with the Czech Ensemble Baroque at the Prague Spring in Brno and Holešov, as well as a series of Caldara´s Harmony of the planets at the Znojmo Music Festival. Other performances include a duo recital with Edin Karamazov at the Beaune International Baroque and Romantic Opera Festival, the project Les deux contre-ténors: If music be the food of love with Maarten Engeltjes and Orchestre PRJCT d’Amsterdam at various concert halls, and a concert with Wrocław Baroque Orchestra at the International Festival Wratislavia Cantans. He will also appear in a new recital programme devised in collaboration with Tamar Halperin.

Scholl sang his signature operatic role Giulio Cesare during his debut at Oper Frankfurt, as well as at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and at the 2012 Salzburger Festspiele, opposite Cecilia Bartoli. He has also performed as Bertarido, making his debut at both the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and The Metropolitan Opera, opposite Renée Fleming. His concert performances include appearances with Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouworkest, Boston Symphony Orchestra and many of the world’s leading baroque orchestras. He is a regular guest with numerous chamber groups including Kammerorchester Basel, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Tel Aviv Soloists and the Vienna Morphing Orchestra, with whom he has worked extensively on the music of Arvo Pärt, repertoire he plans to record with the group.

Born into a family of singers in Eltville on the Rhine, near Wiesbaden, Scholl’s early musical training was with the Kiedricher Chorbuben, a choir with a tradition spanning 650 years. He later studied under Richard Levitt and René Jacobs at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Baritone Edward Kim is an international opera singer and educator from South Korea, currently based in Singapore. He has performed a variety of operatic roles, including Silvio in Pagliacci for Singapore Lyric Opera, Don Giovanni for The Opera People, Vater in Hänsel und Gretel for Opera Holland Park, Dandini in La Cenerentola for Welsh National Opera Gala under the baton of Maestro Carlo Rizzi, and Forester in Příhody lišky Bystroušky for Hampstead Garden Opera.

He has appeared at major festivals such as the Oxford International Song Festival and the Verbier Festival (Atelier Lyrique), and recently made his debut in French Baroque opera, playing the role of Créon in Charpentier’s Médée in Singapore.

Edward holds a Master of Performance with Distinction from the Royal College of Music and is currently a full-time faculty member in voice at Capital College of the Arts.

Upcoming performances include Oreste in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride with The Opera People, Guglielmo in Puccini’s Le Villi with New Opera Singapore, and Count Formaggio in La Pizza con Funghi.

Kira Lim is a Singaporean soprano and recent graduate of the Yong Siew Toh (YST) Conservatory of Music, where she studied under Professor Alan Bennett. While at YST, she was awarded the 2024 Steven Baxter Scholarship in recognition of her outstanding artistic and academic achievements. She also holds a Diploma in Performance (Theatre) from LASALLE College of the Arts. This August, Kira will begin her Master of Music in Voice at the New England Conservatory.

She was awarded First Place in all categories of the American Protégé Vocal Competition and performed at Carnegie Hall under the tutelage of Ms Khor Ai Ming. Her stage credits include ‘Créuse’ in Médée (The Opera People), Klara in Beacon—a commissioned opera by The Opera People composed by Dr Jonathan Shin, Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Vienna Opera Academy), Gretel in Hansel and Gretel (Vocal Associates), Shimmer in Baby Shark Live! (Singapore & Malaysia tour), and First Maiden in Der Zwerg (The Opera People). She has also appeared in Carmina Burana, La Sonnambula (The Opera People), CabaRED (New Opera Singapore), and the Los Angeles International Music Festival.