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The young Austrian mezzo-soprano, Maria Weiss, started her musical education at the early age of five. Soon she discovered her passion for the musical repertory before 1750, and sang from her thirteenth year of life in different vocal ensembles giving her first solo appearances with works from Heinrich Schütz and J.S. Bach. After receiving a diploma in cultural history studies at the University of Sorbonne (Paris), she studied voice at the national conservatory "Luigi Cherubini" in Florence and concluded her studies in the year 2003 at the University of the Arts in Graz under the guidance of Kammersängerin Joanna Borowska. She continued her vocal training in Barcelona with Jorge Sirena and attended master-classes as well as private coaching with prestigious artists such as Angelika Kirchschlager or Teresa Berganza.
Many awards and scholarships granted by renowned institutions, such as the Teatro Real Madrid, the Saint Louis University and the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela made it possible for her to acquire an extensive repertoire. Maria Weiss has specialized in Spanish and Latin American song under the guidance of Teresa Berganza and Isabel Aragón (amongst others, songs by Manuel De Falla, Enrique Granados, Jesús Guridi, Xavier Montsalvatge, Joaquín Rodrigo, Jaime Leon and Heitor Villa-Lobos).
Maria Weiss' opera spectrum includes not only the most important W.A. Mozart pieces, and extends from the rarely performed Renaissance and Baroque repertoire until Jacques Offenbach's operettas. She sang Gismonda in the first Austrian performance in original language of George Frideric Handel's Ottone, Re di Germania, and Megacle in one of the rarely played operas by Antonio Vivaldi L'Olimpiade at the Donaufestwochen of Michi Gaigg in 2008. At the Montafoner Summer 2007, she interpreted Lisinga in Gluck's Le Cinesi.
Pieces of classical modernity, as well as debut works of emerging artists, are important to Maria Weiss, therefore, in 2008, she performed in Wolfgang Rihm's Jakob Lenz (director: Frank Castorf), with Stefan Asburys as musical director (cast as: Voice), as part of the Wiener Festwochen. Furthermore, she has worked with orchestras such as Ensemble Claudiana, Il Concerto Tivoli, Camerata argentea, the Klangforum Wien, the Vorarlberg Symphonieorchestra and the Grazer Symphoniker. Further engagements saw her perform, amongst others, at the opera house Graz, the "Trigonale Festival of Ancient Music", the Bregenzer Festspielhaus, the Kammeroper Graz and the Klagenfurt Konzerthaus. Regular performances as an oratorio soloist (recently
Haydn's Stabat Mater in St. Stephens Cathedral) round off her artistic profile.
At the end of March and May 2009, Maria Weiss gave her debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus singing the alto parts of the Bach-Kantaten Abonnement-Zyklus with the Ensemble Claudiana, under the direction of Luca Pianca, which she also performed in May 2010.
Amongst other concerts in this season Maria Weiss will sing Spanish Songs at the "Trigonale Festival of Ancient Music" with guitarist Jadran Duncumb, a Monteverdi-Concert with the Baroque Ensemble "Concertino Amarilli" at the Palais Liechtenstein in Vienna, the alto parts of the Bach-Cantatas-Cycle (BACH XXI) with the orchestra Capella Leopoldina in Graz of the Cantatas BWV 61, BWV 132 and BWV 151, oratorio concerts in St. Stephens Cathedral (W.A. Mozart, Haydn) and the role of Aurora in the first Austrian representation in original langue of the opera L'Oracolo del Fato by Francesco Gasparini with orchestra Harmony of Nations (Baroque gestures and director: Sigrid T'Hooft). |
