PROGRAM
John Dowland & Henry Purcell
Come again
Flow my tears
In darkness let me dwell
Music for a while
Bach & Handel
Cello Suite no.1 (lute solo)
Cantata „Nel dolce tempo“
Leo Brouwer
Tres Canciones Amatorias
I. Yo he de enseñarte el camino
II. Cantar de los Cantares
III. Balada de un día de Julio
Sonja Runje has been honing her skills under the guidance of Eva Blahova in Bratislava since 2014, after graduating with honors in solo singing from the Performance Opera program at the Music Academy in Zagreb in the class of Martina Gojčeta Silić. She began her musical education in 2007, studying solo singing in the class of Sanja Erceg Vrekalo at the Josip Hatze Music School in Split.
Among her notable roles are: The Sorceress (H. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas), Orfeo (Ch. W. Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice), Olga (P. I. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin), Mércèdes (G. Bizet: Carmen), The Cat in the children's production of The Cat in Boots (an adaptation of G. Rossini's opera The Italian Girl in Algiers), Sesto (W. A. Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito), Tolomea (G. F. Handel: Giulio Cesare), and Princess Nicoletta (S. Prokofiev: Love for Three Oranges).
She frequently performs as a concert soloist. Her work includes: Mozart's Requiem and Missa Brevis, Vivaldi's Gloria and Stabat Mater, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah, and Dixit Dominus, Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratorio, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, as well as cantatas such as Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, BWV 11, and Süßer Trost, mein Jesu kömmt, BWV 151, with orchestras such as the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Zagreb Soloists, Croatian Baroque Ensemble, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, and others.
In addition to her regular education, she has attended numerous professional masterclasses and seminars. She is also engaged in the art of silk acrobatics, which she incorporates into her opera performances.
Edin Karamazov was born in 1965 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A protégé of Sergiu Celibidache, he began his musical career as a classical guitarist before taking up the Baroque lute, which he studied with Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basle, Switzerland.
Karamazov made his solo debut as a lutenist in 1998, stepping in at the last minute for the legendary Julian Bream. Since then, he has established himself as today's most exciting and charismatic player of the lute. His thrilling virtuoso performances on the lute and guitar, with a repertoire ranging from 16th-century classics to today's music, have garnered rave reviews and unprecedented critical acclaim in Europe and America. As a soloist, he has performed and recorded with leading international early music ensembles and artists, including the Hilliard Ensemble, Hespèrion XX, Andreas Scholl, and Sting. A consummate interpreter and master technician on numerous early and contemporary stringed instruments, outstanding recital artist Edin Karamazov has appeared at multiple significant venues, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London's Wigmore Hall, Berlin's Philharmonie, and Vienna's Konzerthaus, among many others. Looking back to his early days, he enjoys performing impromptu on the street.
His discography for Decca includes the CDs A Musicall Banquet – a collection of lute songs with Andreas Scholl and Wayfaring Stranger – folksongs with Andreas Scholl. The highly successful album Songs from the Labyrinth with Sting, released on Deutsche Grammophon, has not only made him a household name far beyond the confines of the early-music world but also launched a new "lute renaissance" for the 21st century. His latest recording for Decca has been released to great acclaim: The Lute is a Song comprises solo works by J. S. Bach, Leo Brouwer, Zamboni, and Domeniconi as well as arias by Handel with Andreas Scholl, Purcell with Renée Fleming, a traditional Macedonian song with Macedonian singer and songwriter Kaliopi, and a work by and with Sting.
Edin Karamazov plays several plucked instruments of various cultures and epochs and remains committed to exploring the use of lutes in modern music and contemporary improvisational contexts. In addition to his solo career, he enjoys accompanying singers in different styles and backgrounds.