WHERE CORALS LIE

Ruth Willemse: "The songs of Elgar, Mahler and Wagner expose these fears, but in the end they also bring hope and consolation. Nature seems at times to be a reflection of our human inner world. Something similar happens in the music, where the emotional connection with this interior world is extremely direct. For me this consolation lies in the feeling of recognition that can be found in the music". When Mathilde Wesendonck gives thanks to Nature at the end of Schmerzen for the realisation that joy and sorrow continually alternate, Wagner bathes her words in a glorious postlude. The end of Rückert’s Um Mitternacht is enveloped by Mahler with similar hope-laden sonorities. Elgar takes his singer to an optimistic high A on the word ‘love’ at the conclusion of The Swimmer and brings her through troubled waters to the point ‘where no love wanes’.

Mezzo soprano Ruth Willemse and pianist Vital Stahievitch have been working together since 2005, following coachings and masterclasses by Ed Spanjaard, Rudolf Jansen and Julius Drake. They perform regularly as a duo, in a variety of works from the song repertoire. Their first collaboration consisted of him helping her out with the pronunciation of Russian verses in Tchaikovsky songs. Before long, they started making music together and they discovered a common love for the song repertoire. Today, they are a sought after duo. In addition to their solo projects and those with other musicians, they have performed all over the Netherlands and on Dutch national radio as well as in Belarus and on Belarusian radio.

Ruth Willemse studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory and graduated from the Prince Claus Conservatory. She performed at Dutch National Opera, Dutch Touring Opera and the Royal Concertgebouw in works by Bernstein, Rossini, Puccini and Handel.

Vital Stahievitch hails from Minsk, Belarus. He graduated from the National Music College and the Belarusian State Academy of Music with Prof. Zoya Kacharskaya. He continued his studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Håkon Austbø and the Amsterdam University with Naum Grubert. He is a laureate of several international competitions (including Vilnius, Minsk, Amsterdam and Antwerp) and has performed both as a soloist and a chamber musician all over Europe, in the US, Mexico and Japan. Repertoire includes Mozart, Chopin, Schubert, Brahms, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov and music from his native Belarus. Nineteenth century Romanticism is a specialty. Since 2011, Vital teaches at the Amsterdam Conservatory.