Cantofest 2023

Born in Archangel, Russia, soprano Olga Makarina made her first New York appear- ances at the New York City Opera as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor. After the success of those performances Ms. Makarina also went on to perform there as Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann and Gilda in Rigoletto. During the course of her career, Ms. Maka- rina has sung leading operatic roles such as Mimi in La Boheme, Adina in Elixir of Love, Amina in La Sonnambula, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Micaela in Carmen, Desdemona in Otello, Violetta in La Traviata, Elettra in Idomeneo, Lyudmila in Ruslan and Lyudmila, Lucrezia in Lucrezia Borgia and Norma on stages all over the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Regio in Rome, The Mariinsky Theater, Teatro de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, and the National Theater in Prague. Concert appearances include a Solo Recital at the Weil concert hall in New York City, Soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem, Carmina Burana and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with maestro Atsushi Yamada and The New York City Opera Orchestra in Frederick P. Rose Hall in Lincoln Center,The role of Marfa in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride with Olga Borodina and the Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall, where she also sang principal roles in Les Huguenots and Robert le Diable. She also performed concerts and solo recitals in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan, and at the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona. Ms. Makarina performed in highly acclaimed festivals among which are the Spoleto festival and the Cesky Krumlov Festival with the Brno Philhar- monic that was televised in Eurovision.

Ms. Makarina made her stage debut singing Mozart’s C minor mass with Yehudi Menuhin. She has since performed with many top conductors such as James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, and Bruno Campanella. After making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in L’enfant et les Sortileges in 2002, Ms. Makarina went on to per- form at the MET for 18 seasons. Her repertoire there has included Gilda in Rigoletto, Elettra in Idomeneo, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Imogene in Il Pi- rata, Lucia in Lucia di Lamermoor, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, Princess Eudoxie inLa Juive, Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffman, Manon, Violetta in La Traviata, and Ital- ian Singer in Capriccio.

Ms. Makarina has recorded three solo albums with Romeo Records: Italian Opera Arias, Olga Makarina Sings Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Mozart: Arias; Exsultate, Jubilate.

A graduate of the Mannes School of Music, Ms. Makarina also has her Masters in piano and voice from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. She has won awards such as the Met- ropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Singers Development Foundation and the Liederkranz Competition. Ms. Makarina travels all over the world to give master classes. She has taught in Israel, Russia, New York and Japan, and is a Management Board Member at The Elena Obraztsova International Academy of Music in St. Petersburg.

Vlad Iftinca is currently part of the 2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera music staff roster in New York City. Between 2007-2014, he held the position of staff coach in the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. Born in Romania, he received his education at the Reina Sofia School of Music in Madrid and the The Juilliard School. At the Metropolitan Opera, in the last twelve years, he has worked as pianist under conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda, Marco Armiliato, Sir Andrew Davis, James Levine and Maurizio Benini. Mr. Iftinca has collaborated in recital with distinguished artists such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Deborah Voigt, Thomas Hampson, Luca Pisaroni, Joan Rodgers, Isabel Leonard, Erin Morley, Matthew Rose and Elza van der Heever. Concert venues include Frankfurt Oper, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Max Joseph Saal in Munich, Palau des Arts in Valencia, Soirées Musicales d’Arles in France, Beijing Music Festival, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Carnegie Hall “Great Singers” Recital Series, the Seoul Performing Arts Center, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the “Virtuoso Series” in Salt Lake City, and the Ravinia Festival’s recital series. He has also worked at Spoleto Festival USA, Aspen Music Festival and Savannah Voice Festival. In 2017, Vlad Iftinca has been featured on a new live recording in recital with soprano Lisette Oropesa. Their concert, Within/Without has been released to critical acclaim. As a conductor, he has led performances at Oper Frankfurt, Oper Stuttgart, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, TriCities Opera, San Antonio Opera and Opera on the Avalon Festival. Future engagements include recitals with Thomas Hampson and Luca Pisaroni in the United States and coaching residencies in Romania and Mexico City. 

Ugo Mahieux was born into an Italian/French family of artists in Napoli.
Mr. Mahieux has studied piano at Napoli’s ‘San Pietro a Majella Music Conservatory’ and art history at the ‘Federico II Universi- ty’. He has studied harpsichord and baroque music at the ‘Centro di Musica Antica la Pietà dei Turchini’ in Italy with Antonio Flo- rio. As an accompanist he has perfected his knowledge under the guidance of Irene Kudela, Margaret Singer, Robert Kettelson and Enza Ferrari. In 2008 he has entered the ‘Atelier Lyrique’ of the Paris National Opera as a young artist, where he started his ca- reer as music staff for main stage productions at the Palais Gar- nier and Opéra Bastille and also as a recital partner in concert venues as Auditorium du Louvre and Palais de l’Elysée, French Cul- tural institute in London and Villa Medici in Rome, Hospices de Beaune among others.

Mr. Mahieux has been engaged as music staff at many other compa- nies and festivals in Europe as Opéra de Paris, Riga National Ope- ra, Opéra de Marseille, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra de Lil- le, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra de Bordeaux, Spoleto Festival, Wildbad Rossini Festival and Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia. During these engagements, Mr. Mahieux has worked with and coached cele- brated artists, among others, Cecilia Bartoli, Natalie Dessay, Olga Borodina, Stéphanie D'Oustrac, Isabel Leonard, Patrizia Cio- fi, Sandrine Piau, Ludovic Tezier, Lawrence Zazzo, Michael Spyres.As a pianist and harpsichordist, he has worked and performed under

distinguished conductors such as Emmanuel Villaume, Bertrand De Billy, Emmanuelle Haïm, Daniel Oren, Jean-Christophe Spinosi and Thomas Hengelbrock. Ugo Mahieux has accompanied master classes of famous singers such as Raina Kabaivanska, Renato Bruson, Ann Murray and Luciana Serra. Mr Mahieux's playing has been featured on commercial recordings as Rossini's La Gazzetta (Naxos Label). As a language coach, he has prepared mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes for her recent "Rossini" commercial recording (CIC Label) and tenor Topi Lehtipu for "Vivaldi, Arie per tenore"(Naïve Label).

Recently he has prepared Le Nozze di Figaro and Carmen at Williamsburg Opera, Un ballo in Maschera at Paris Opera, Samson et Dalila and Carmen at Dallas Opera.

Future engagements include, among others, La Bohème and Falstaff at Dallas Opera, La Cenerentola at Staatsoper Stuttgart, La Vestale at Theater an der Wien, and La Favorite at Houston Grand Opera.

Adi Bar Soria

Israeli conductor and pianist, winner of many international awards that have led him to performances at leading music centers, including Gewandhaus Leipzig, Berlin Philharmonie and the Alte Oper Frankfurt.

Adi Bar Soria began his career as resident conductor (Kapellmeister) at the Augsburg Theater. He later 

worked at the Dresden Opera (Semperoper), and as resident conductor and deputy musical director at the 

Poznan national opera. He also conducted productions at the opera houses in Mannheim, Warsaw, Craiova, Gdansk, Chișinău, Kaiserslautern etc.

Adi Bar Soria worked as Assistant conductor to Ivan Fischer at the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra.

His productions of Penderecki's opera Die Schwarze Maske at the Warsaw National Theater, with the 

collaboration of the composer, Verdi's Don Carlo at the Craiova Opera Festival an Richard Wagner's concert gala in the Markgräflichen opera house in Bayreuth were very favorably received.

The list of operas he has conducted includes Otello, Aida, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Nabucco, La Traviata, Tosca, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Fidelio, Cavalleria Rusticana, i Pagliacci, Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Mozart's Da Ponte operas.

Adi Bar Soria has led many ensembles, among them the Augsburg Philharmonic, the Budapest Symphony 

orchestra, the National Theater Orchestra Mannheim, the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva, the Thüringen Philharmonic Gotha-Eisenach, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Lecce, the Südwestfalen Philharmonic and the Prague Smetana Philharmonic etc.

Adi Bar Soria studied piano, Lied interpretation and conducting in Berlin, Jerusalem, Madrid and Frankfurt and has won numerous international music competitions. As a soloist and chamber musician he has given concerts all over the world and made many recordings and radio and television productions – for SWR, 

DeutschlandRadio Berlin, RSB, ARD, Kol Israel, Israel Culture Channel.

Adi Bar Soria holds guest lectures and conducts masterclasses in universities all over Europe.