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Eytan Pessen

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Full Name
  
Eytan Pessen


Name
  
Eytan Pessen

Eytan Pessen httpsmedialicdncommprmprshrinknp400400p

Born
  
August 30, 1961 (
1961-08-30
)

Occupation
  
Opera director, Pianist, Vocal Coach

Enoa workshops with izabella k osi ska eytan pessen and matthias rexroth


Eytan Pessen (born 30 August 1961 in Haifa, Israel) is a pianist, voice teacher and coach. He was former opera director of the Semperoper in Dresden, artistic advisor to Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and former casting director of the Staatstheater Stuttgart.

Contents

Angela denoke singt strauss die nacht kl eytan pessen


Early years

Born in Haifa, Israel, to parents of German heritage, he studied Piano (with Dr. Nilly Shilo, Walter Aufhauser, Irina Zaritskaya and Dina Turgeman), composition (with Andre Hajdu and Daniel V. Oppenheim), and musicology at the Tel-Aviv University Rubin Academy, with a Bachelor of Music, summa cum Laude, in 1983, and a Masters of Music, magna cum laude, in 1984. Further Piano studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Vladimir Sokoloff, (voice studies at Curtis with Robert Grooters), and at the Juilliard School in New York with Marshal Williamson, Margo Garrett and Alberta Masiello. In New York he worked as pianist and coach for the Metropolitan Opera young artist's programme.

Stuttgart Opera 1991-2006

As head of music staff and the casting director at the Stuttgart Opera in Germany, he worked under the German Dramaturge-Intendant Klaus Zehelein and Co-Intendant Pamela Rosenberg. When she left for San Francisco in 2001, he became casting director. In Stuttgart, Pessen launched the international carriers of conductors Constantinos Carydis, Nicola Luisotti, Carlo Montanaro and Robin Ticciati. Singers Lucas Meachem and Eva-Maria Westbroek began their international careers during his Stuttgart tenure as well. Other guest artists were Brandon Jovanovich, Catherine Naglestad and Jonas Kaufmann, who explored Italian repertoire as Barbiere-Almaviva, Rodolfo and Alfredo. In Stuttgart Pessen promoted a series of unknown baroque and classic works, and conceived the chamber music series for the orchestra at the Mozart-Saal, which is still running today. Under Zehelein’s leadership the Stuttgart Opera won the Opera house of the year award of European critics six times during the fifteen years.

RUHR.2010 2007-2010

Eytan Pessen was artistic advisor to the RUHR.2010 cultural festival under music director Steven Sloane. An intense collaboration ensued with the composer Hans Werner Henze, 2010 became a year-long Hans Werner Henze project, which spanned many cities, opera and ballet companies as well as symphony orchestras and chamber music groups. Henze wrote his last opera, Gisela! For the RUHR.2010 (an opera for and about youth, premiered at the RuhrTriennale).

Semperoper Dresden 2010-2013

As opera director of the Semperoper, he invited the composer Hans Werner Henze and the director Stefan Herheim to return each season for different projects. He chose to collaborate with a young generation of directors including Bettina Bruinier, Jan Phillip Gloger, Florentine Klepper, Axel Köhler, Michael Schulz, Elisabeth Stöppler und Manfred Weiss.

Interested in the artistic benefits of a stable ensemble working together over a long period, he chose to extend the Ensemble and the young ensemble (the Dresden opera’s studio programme) rather than invest in established guests. Among the artists he brought to Dresden as permanent members of the ensemble are Giorgio Beruggi, Scott Connor, Emily Dorn, Vanessa Goikoexea, Evan Hughes, Pavol Kuban, Christopher Magiera, Amanda Majeski, Marjorie Owens, Barbara Senator, Tichina Vaughn, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Sebastian Wartig and Elizabeth Zharoff. Conductors that made their debut in Dresden include Josep Caballé Domenech, Julia Jones (conductor), Nicola Luisotti, Michele Mariotti, Carlo Montanaro, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Henrik Nánási, Daniel Oren and Omer Meir Wellber. Pessen widened the repertory span to include commissions from de:Miroslav Srnka and Lucia Ronchetti, as well as Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus, Jaromir Weinberger’s Svanda Dudák, (Schwanda the Bagpiper), Kurt Weill’s Street Scene (opera), Hans Werner Henze’s Gisela! and We Come to the River. For this performance the famous theatre interior (by the architect Gottfried Semper) was completely rebuilt with three vast set parts (designed by Rebecca Ringst and Anette Hunger) jutting into the audience space and reaching up toward the balcony.

For the Wagner year 2013 he conceived a mini-festival that explored Richard Wagner’s development years in Dresden, combining Wagner's The Flying Dutchman with Gaspare Spontini's La Vestale and Halevy’s La Juive.

Opening up the Semperoper to the general public, he often wrote essays and editorials; in one case counting the calories burnt going to different operas, or imagining a conversation with the Gargoyles decorating the new building of the Semperoper. For the programme notes of Alcina he wrote a poem describing the first performance of Alcina through the eyes of a young boy.

Pianist, Voice teacher and coach

Eytan Pessen now teaches voice and piano at the Opera Academy of the Grand Theatre, Warsaw (Teatr Wielki i Opera Narodowa w Warszawie), as well as numerous workshops for ENOA.

Since 2007 he has been teaching at the Theaterakademie in Munich, since 2008 at the Frankfurt Opera, since 2014 at the IOS in Zürich.

He often gives masterclasses for singers, pianists and accompanists at the Académie of the Paris national opera, Les Azuriales festival, Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, the Scuola d’Opera in Bologna Oberlin in Italy, San Francisco Opera, North Carolina School of Arts, New Israeli Opera, the Mikhailovsky theatre in Saint Petersburg and the theatres of Stuttgart and Dresden.

Pessen performs in recitals and concerts with Giorgio Berrugi, Keith Lewis, Amanda Majeski, Christa Mayer, Marjorie Owens, Matthias Rexroth, Iurii Samoilov, Michal Shamir, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Rachel Willis-Sørensen. With Motti Kastón and Helene Schneiderman he produced a CD of songs in Jiddish and Ladino. Recent appearances include the Rheingau Musikfestival, Bochum Symphony, and the theatres of Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Dresden, the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, the Miskolc Festival, as well as radio broadcasts NDR Hamburg, DeutschlandRadio Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonie and Stuttgart opera.

Consulting and Judge

He was jury member of the Aviv competition in Tel Aviv, Concorso Internationale di Assisi, Concorso Aslico in Como, Stanislav Moniuszko competition in Warschau, Antonina Campi International Voice competition in Lublin, Concorso Voci Verdiane Busseto as well as the Belvedere competition in Vienna. The year 2011 he was artistic advisor for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and from December 2012 to 2014, was advisor to Teatro Massimo in Palermo, where he programmed Richard Strauss’ Feuersnot, Jaromír Weinberger's Schwanda the Bagpiper and Hans Werner Henze's Gisela!.

Writings

Poems

  • Eytan Pessen, Chopin in Stuttgart, in C. E. Chaffin, The Best of the Melic Review, 2001 pp. 88–93, ISBN pending
  • Eytan Pessen, Chamber Music, in Kammerkonzerte 2004/05, Staatstheater Stuttgart p. 74
  • Eytan Pessen „Alcina“ in Covent Garden, 1735, in Programmheft Alcina, Semperoper Dresden, October, 2011
  • Essays(selection)

  • Eytan Pessen, Endings and Beginnings, in „Anders“, raumzeit3 Verlag, ISBN 398110076X ISBN 978-3981100761 (2006)
  • Eytan Pessen, Über Musen, Masken und Magie in „Saisonvorschau Semperoper Dresden“ 2011/12 pp. 14–17, Yearbook – season catalogue for 2011/12, published by Semperoper Dresden
  • Eytan Pessen, Zusammenhängende Reliquien, Eine Geschichte über Richard Wagner und Gottfried Semper. Special publication for the Wagner year 2013, Semperoper Dresden.
  • A row of essays in the opera programme notes of the Semperoper Dresden, letters to composers (selection) Sehr verehrter Maestro Hasse August, 2010, Lieber Hans September, 2010, Dear Kurt Weill, Juni 2011, Sommo Maestro Monteverdi, Februar 2011
  • Eytan Pessen, Rozhinkes mit Mandeln in ‚Ulrike Hessler Errinerungen’, in Semper Nr. 2, 2012-2013
  • Eytan Pessen, Heart in the south (in German) (of Hans Werner Henze) in Semper Nr.3, p. 51,2012-2013
  • Cilea, Giorgio Berrugi, Wigmore Hall
  • Alban Berg, Op. 2, Christa Mayer, Semperoper Dresden
  • Robert Schumann, Der Einsiedler, with tenor Maciej Kwaśnikowski
  • Franz Liszt, three songs, with Baritone Pavol Kuban, Semperoper Dresden
  • Gaspare Spontini, Mignon, with Emily Dorn, Semperoper Dresden
  • Wagner Lieder, Markus Marquardt, Semperoper Dresden
  • Richard Strauss, Morgen, Carolina Ullrich, Semperoper Dresden
  • Rachmaninoff, Andrej Dunaev, Semperoper Dresden
  • Respighi, Giorgio Berrugi Wigmore Hall
  • Gliere, Danylo Matviienko, Warsaw, Teatr Wielki
  • Yiddish

  • Unter Beymer, Yiddish song, with Motti Kaston, Esslingen
  • Eynzam, Yiddish, with Mateusz Hoedt, Warsaw Teatr Wielki
  • Yankele, with Marcjanna Myrlak, Warsaw, Teatr Wielki
  • Rozhinkas mit Mandlen, with Christoph Pohl, Semperoper
  • Folk

  • Rumanian Christmas Carol, With Roxana Incontrera, Semperoper Dresden
  • Al la una yo naci, Giorgio Berrugi, Wigmore Hall
  • References

    Eytan Pessen Wikipedia