SERGE DORNY
President
Serge Dorny was born in Wevelgem (Belgium) on 4 February 1962.
He graduated at the State University of Ghent (in Art History, Archeology, Musicology, Press and Communication), at the Saint-Luc Institute of Ghent (in Architecture) and at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent (in Music Writing and Analysis).
In 1983, Dorny joined the drama group of the La Monnaie Royal Theatre in Brussels, directed by Gerard Mortier. Later, he collaborated at the Festival des Flanders, of which he became the artistic director in 1987.
In 1996, he was appointed general and artistic manager of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, excellently recovering its financial situation and artistic level.
Since 2003, Dorny has been the general manager of the Opéra National de Lyon.
There, he has introduced innovative artistic policies and programmes by proposing less known works along with the classics. He has organised theme festivals and given great importance to the music of the 20th century and creation. Dorny has founded a permanent working group thanks to a regular collaboration with some professionals such as the maestros Kirill Petrenko, Evelino Pido and Kazushi Ono (permanent maestro since 2008) and the scene directors Peter Stein, Laurent Pelly, Robert Lepage, Alex Olle/La Fura dels Baus, Olivier Py…
At the Opéra de Lyon, Dorny has also developed policies of accessibility and openness towards every category of audience by creating a cultural centre which designs and organises cultural events addressed to those who are far from arts and culture.
Under his management, the level of attendance (opera ballet, concerts) increased to 96% and the percentage of young people under 25 reached 25%.
Dorny has also widely favoured patronage, which has become more and more important during his mandate.
Serge Dorny is a member of the board of directors of several competitions and institutions among which are the Queen Elizabeth International Competition in Brussels, the Youth Orchestra of France and the National Conservatory of Music and Dance of Lyon as well as the Cultural Commission for Arts Development of CERN, the European organization for nuclear research.
Since 2008, Dorny has given courses in Executive Master in Arts Administration at the University of Zurich.
In 2011-2012, he was appointed member of the commission for the financing of shows by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.
Dorny is regularly invited to be a member of the jury at several international competitions such as the Competition for Directors of Helsinki, the Gustav-Mahler Competition for Directors in Bamberg, the Queen Elizabeth International Competition (voice section), the International Competition in Geneva, the International Voice Competition in Côme, and the Staging Competition in Vienna.
Serge Dorny received an Honorary Degree at the University of Montreal in 2008. In 2012, he was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor (France) and Knight of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) in 2013.
ELIZABETH NORBERG-SCHULZ
Born in Oslo from an Italian mother, Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz has studied in Rome at the conservatory of Santa Cecilia and then with Hans Hotter, Peter Pears and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.
After winning various competitions, among which are the “Mozart Wettbewerb” in Salzburg, the “Belli” in Spoleto and the “International competition for lyric and chamber singing” promoted by the Bavarian Radio, Norberg-Schulz has started a fast and lucky international career with concerts and in theatres. Today, she is a regular guest of the main lyric theatres and festivals all around the world. From the Scala Theatre (where she has sung with Riccardo Muti in various roles) to the Opera Theatre in Rome, Teatro Carlo Felice in Bologna, La Fenice Theatre in Venice, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Comunale of Bologna,Teatro Comunale of Genova, Teatro Comunale of Florence, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Massimo of Palermo, Rossini Opera Festival, Festival dei due Mondi of Spoleto, Festival of Macerata, Festival of Salzburg, Festival of Montreux, Beethoven’s Festival of Bonn, Haendel’s Festival of Halle, Festival of Glyndebourne, Staatsoper of Wien, Lyric Opera Theatre of Chicago, Covent Garden Theatre in London, Concert Gebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, Opéra Bastille Theatre and Théàtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, Opera Theatre in Geneva, Teatro Real in Madrid, Opera Theatre in Hamburg, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Metropolitan Opera House in New York…
Numerous and worth of the maximum consideration are the orchestras with which the soprano Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz has collaborated: Rai National Symphony Orchestra, Academy of S.Cecilia, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, I Filarmonici della Scala, Staatskapelle of Dresda, Munchener Philharmoniker, Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestrer, Philharmonic Orchestra of Oslo, Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester, New York Philharmonker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Concertgebouw…
Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz has sung under the conduction of almost all the greatest conductors of the last years: Boris Gudonov with Claudio Abbado, La Clemenza di Tito with Muti, Die Frau Ohne Schatten and Falstaff with Solti, all of them in Salzburg. Un Ballo in Maschera (in the role of Oscar) with Pappano, and Tourandot (in the role of Liù) with Daniele Gatti in Chicago, London and Bologna, Die Zauberflöte with Janowsky, Falstaff with Osawa, Idomeneo (in the role of Ilia) with Colin Davis, Guillaume Tell with Muti and Chailly, without forgetting the tours of La Scala in Japan where she has sung with Carlos Kleiber, Lorin Maazel and Riccardo Muti, just to mention only some of them.
Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz has collaborated with the main artists of our times: De Simone, Ronconi, Strehler, Pizzi, Saint Just, Proietti, Martone, Miller, Ugo de Hana, Graham Viick, Goetz Friedrich, Richard Johnes, David Mc Vickar, Loft Mansouri.
She has won various prizes. In 2003, she was awarded the MINERVA prize for music and in 2006, the VERDI prize for her extraordinary international artistic career.
In 2004, Norberg-Schulz was made Knight of Sankt Olav by His Majesty Harald V king of Norway and in 2007 she was made Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana for her international high artistic merits.
Since 2006, Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz has been a voice teacher at the University of Stavanger in Norway and since 2010, she has been regularly invited as a guest teacher at the Nanjing University of Arts in China. She gives many masterclasses in the most important Italian and European institutions among which are the Accademia Filarmonica Romana and the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale of Spoleto, with which she has started a permanent collaboration.
Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz has recorded about 20 CDs with important record labels such as PHILIPS, BMG, EMI and DECCA. Her CD of Grieg’s lieder has been awarded the Grieg prize and her recording of Brahms’ Requiem with Blomstedt (Decca) has received the GRAMMY AWARD.
BRIAN DICKIE
Brian Dickie has worked in opera for more than fifty years and stepped down in August as General Director of Chicago Opera Theater where he had been since 1999.
He began his opera career at the Glyndebourne Festival in England in 1962, when Maestro Vittorio Gui was Music Director of the Festival, and remained there for twenty-seven years. He was the first administrator of Glyndebourne Touring Opera before becoming General Administrator of the festival in 1981, served as Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival 1967-1973, and as General Director of the Canadian Opera Company 1989-1993. He was General Director of the European Union Opera project 1996-98.
He has been Chairman of the Jury for Pre-selections for the Bertelsmann Foundation’s biennial Neue StimmenCompetition since 1999. He was Chairman of the jury of the Toronto Bi-centennial Mozart competition in 1991, and has been a regular jury member for the Metropolitan Opera Nation Council auditions, including adjudicating the final that was the subject of the documentary film Audition in 2007.
He will be conducting auditions for Neue Stimmen in Asia, Europe and North and South America throughout the spring and summer of 2013, as well as serving on the Artistic Advisory Committee of England’s Garsington Opera summer festival.
EDOARDO MÜLLER
Edoardo Müller was born in Trieste. He started is career as a pianist but soon he devoted himself to the opera becoming the assistant of some of the most important conductors (Serafin, Gui, Votto, Boehm, Molinari-Pradelli, Abbado, Kleiber, Muti and many others). He began his conducting activity substituting Pretre in Rossini’s Mosè at the inauguration of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1973. From then on, his career took him to the main theatres around the world, from the Scala Theatre in Milan, where he has conducted for several years, to Paris, Munich, Barcelona, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, Montreal, Bologna, Venice and almost all Italian cities. In the United States, besides a long relationship with the Metropolitan Theatre in New York, he has conducted in Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Seattle, Washington, Dallas, San Diego (where he has been main conductor), Detroit and more.
Muller has worked as a concert pianist with Renata Tebaldi, Carreras, Obraszova, Bruson, Bergonzi, Caballè, etc.
He has taught conduction at the Conservatory of Milan and directed the perfecting centre for opera artists at the Scala Theatre. He often gives masterclasses and he has been a member of the jury of several international singing competitions.
He has done records for Philips, BMG, Bongiovanni and Orpheus.
GIANNI TANGUCCI
Born in Pesaro, Tangucci began his musical studies at the local Conservatory “G. Rossini”, then he got a diploma in piano at the Conservatory “B. Marcello” of Venice. He started his professional career immediately in the theatre as Maestro Collaboratore at the Teatro La Fenice of Venice where in 1970 he carried out artistic and executive functions, in 1978 he was appointed Artistic Secretary and in 1981 he became Director of Technical-Artistic Organization. In 1983 Tangucci was Assistant Artistic Director at the Teatro alla Scala for two seasons.
In September 1985 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna for the seasons 1985/86 and 1986/87.
For the seasons 1987/88 and 1988/89 Tangucci was the Artistic Director of the Teatro La Fenice of Venice, after working as Artistic Consultant at the Teatro dell’Opera of Genoa.
From September 1989 to all 1995, Tangucci was the Vice Artistic Director of the Teatro alla Scala of Milan. From 1987 to 1992, he was also the Artistic Consultant of the Teatro Comunale of Treviso where, in collaboration with the conductor Peter Maag, he promoted and supervised the project “La Bottega” for young singers linked to the “Toti del Monte” Voice Competition.
From 1995 to 1998, Gianni Tangucci was the Artistic Consultant for the Teatro Regio of Parma.
From January 1996 to March 2000, he was the Artistic Director of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna.
From April 2000, he was the Artistic Director of the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome.
From December 2002 to 2006, Tangucci was the Artistic Director of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Since 2005, he has been the Artistic Consultant for the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali-Teatro Dal Verme of Milan.
From 2007 to July 2010, Tangucci was the Artistic Consultant of the Ministry Commissioner at the Teatro San Carlo of Naples.
Since 2008, he has been the Artistic Director of the Pergolesi Spontini Foundation.
In 2009, he was the Artistic Consultant of the Arena di Verona.
Since 2011, Tangucci has been the Artistic Director of the Festival Internazionale della Cultura of Bergamo.
Gianni Tangucci has given a course at the Scuola Musicale of Fiesole (Biennial Course for Musical Operators – Tuscany Region); a course about the history and methods of artistic-musical management at the University of Parma, Department of Musicology; a course about marketing techniques and marketing of entertainment at the Cattaneo Institute of Rome; a master course in management of entertainment at SDA Bocconi in Milan; various Masterclasses at the Festival Internazionale della Cultura of Bergamo and at the Scuola dell’Opera of Bologna and at the Festival della Valle d’Itria.