Projects
Here you can find some of my favorite collaborations and the programs created together with these wonderful artists and musicians.
Duo AUSMA (classical guitar/mezzo-soprano)
Duo AUSMA was founded in 2018 at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy, where Vizma Zvaigzne (mezzo-soprano) and Theduardo Prasetyo (guitar) met during a chamber music course. They first performed Xavier Montsalvatge’s song cycle Cinco canciones negras (arranged by Theduardo Prasetyo), enjoyed working together and now perform regularly as a duo. Their mentor was Prof. Eugenia Kanthou (Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler). In 2019-2021 Vizma and Theduardo were YEHUDI MENUHIN Live Music Now Berlin e.V. scholarship holders.
Their repertoire includes the song cycle Siete canciones populares españolas by M. de Falla, Cinco canciones negras by Xavier Montsalvatge, Canciones españolas antiguas by F. Garcia Lorca, Five Spanish Songs by E. Granados, various songs by F. Schubert, J. Brahms, etc. They have created several programmes:
Recital Havana-Berlin Express with music by M. de Falla, X. Montsalvatge, F. Schubert and hits from the golden twenties in Berlin (2019);
Recital LUX – consisting of Renaissance art songs from England, Germany and Spain, as well as Spanish-Cuban art songs (2020);
Staged recital NINGHE – canciones, historias, café y leche with music by M. de Falla, X. Montsalvatge and I. Albéniz, staged by Vendula Nováková (2023).
In March 2024, the Duo AUSMA released their debut album Ninghe, Ninghe (Genuin Classics).
Read more here: https://www.genuin.de/_new/cd_1.php?cd=GEN24825d.
Duo Zvaigzne/Eckhaut (mezzo-soprano/piano)
Vizma Zvaigzne and Justine Eckhaut have been working closely together as a song duo since 2020, and in 2021 they presented their first recital Chant d’amour et de mort in Latvia, which they also took on tour in Germany (Berlin, Munich and Freiburg) in 2022.
In September 2021, they also took part in the HIDALGO Festival in Munich, Germany, in the Young Artist Section Street Art Song, playing several mini-concerts around Munich and winning 2nd prize in the first edition of the Art Song Battle.
In 2022, they explored new formats at the Berlied Festival in Berlin offering living room concerts À la carte. Intimes Konzert für 2 bis 5 Zuschauer.
In 2023 they presented a very special recital HAIKU. ESTAMPE. MELODIE with music by C. Debussy and new works/world premieres by Marc-Antoine Houen, Rory Wainwright Johnston and Cadu Verdan.
In summer 2023 they brought a new programme Solodziesma vai Melodie? to the chamber music festival Tuvāk Zvaigznēm in Latvia. Together with Latvian pianist Aldis Liepiņš and music journalist, composer and presenter Edgars Raginskis, they tried to compare and analyse Latvian and French art songs. In 2024, they brought this programme back to the Baltais flīģlelis concert hall in Sigulda, Latvia.