Amand Hekkers
Dutch tenor Amand Hekkers received his training at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, where he studied with Meinard Kraak. He attended masterclasses with, among others, Christina Deutekom and Vera Rozsa, and continued his studies with Gabriella Ravazzi in Italy, Henny Diemer in Utrecht, and Nelly Miricioiu in London.
Amand Hekkers is Lecturer of Classical Singing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, and a guest teacher at the Royal Conservatoire of Copenhagen. He regularly gives masterclasses to young singers and specialises in coaching tenor voices.
As a soloist he has sung with distinguished conductors such as Jaap van Zweden, Kenneth Montgomery, Bruno Rigacci, Ed Spanjaard, Lawrence Renes, Ivan Marinov, Jan Stulen, and Arjan Tien. His repertoire includes roles such as Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amore), Arvino (I Lombardi), Macduff (Macbeth), Gaston (La Traviata), Abdallo (Nabucco), Borsa (Rigoletto), Don Eusebio (L’Occasione fa il ladro), Coryphée (Le Comte Ory), Tebaldo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Elvino (La Sonnambula), Rodolfo (La bohème), Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Gonzalve (L’Heure Espagnole), Le Remendado (Carmen), L’aumônier (Dialogues des Carmélites), Brabantische Edle (Lohengrin), and Moser (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg — both released on CD, conducted by Jaap van Zweden).
As a singer of Lieder, he performed at the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and was a guest at music festivals in Zeeland and Friesland, performing Britten’s Canticles with horn player Frank Lloyd and the world premiere of Lieder by Wim van Lichtenberg. He sang the tenor solo parts in Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Bizet’s Te Deum in Leipzig, Dresden, and Weimar. His other oratorio repertoire includes the Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini, Mozart’s Krönungsmesse and Great Mass in C, Gounod’s Messe Solennelle Sainte Cécile, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Handel’s Messiah, and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater.
Claudia Patacca
Dutch soprano Claudia Patacca finished her studies Cum Laude at ArtEZ, Institute of the Arts in Holland, and was awarded the Tubantia Prize. She continued her studies at the International Opera Center in Amsterdam. Claudia made her concert debut with Poulenc’s Gloria during her studies, and her operatic debut in Amsterdam during the Holland Festival as the Voice from Heaven in Le Roi Arthus by Chausson, conducted by Edo de Waart.
Claudia is a professor of classical singing at ArtEZ, Institute of the Arts in Holland. She has initiated and directed several productions for students, including Il segreto di Susanna by Wolf-Ferrari, Soapera (opera highlights), Mein Liebeslied muss sein Walzer sein (operetta highlights), and the Johannes Passion by J.S. Bach.
Claudia has given masterclasses at the Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona, the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn, the Malmö Academy of Music, and the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar. In Holland, together with tenor Amand Hekkers, she co-founded Giravoce Singing Academy, organising several masterclasses.
Claudia has appeared on stage at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, La Monnaie in Brussels, Oper Frankfurt, Oper Halle, the Dutch National Touring Opera Company, and Opera Zuid Maastricht — in roles including Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Ortlinde (Die Walküre), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Ninette (L’Amour des trois Oranges), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), a Blumenmädchen (Parsifal), Second Niece (Peter Grimes), and Anna (Nabucco), with conductors including Simon Rattle, Antonio Pappano, Kenneth Montgomery, and Ton Koopman. Other roles include Elettra (Idomeneo, Mediterranean Festival of Arts, Crete), Violetta (La Traviata), Madame Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), Queen Tye (Akhnaten), Fatime (Abu Hassan), and Marthe (in the modern opera Marthe by Willem Dragstra).
Claudia has a passion for song, giving many recitals with pianist Marien van Nieukerken, including the Mignon Lieder by Hugo Wolf, the Vier letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss, and the Wesendonck Lieder by Wagner. She recorded the complete songs of Arthur Honegger with baritone Sinan Vural and pianist Nick Ross for Centaur Records, and has performed with the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, the Schönberg Ensemble, the Valerius Ensemble, and Musica Classica, among many others. Her concert repertoire spans works from Handel to composers of the 21st century, and she has recorded four Mozart discs for Brilliant Classics.