German baritone Florian Störtz and American pianist Mark Rogers have both been building impressive careers since we first met them during the 2023 masterclass, making them true Next Generation Artists.
Following their selection for the Young Artist Platform In 2024 we asked them how they were getting on. They wrote warm memories to have to the masterclass:
‘The connection and collaboration with other musicians, with Robert Holl and Elly Ameling, the wonderful location and the engaged audience in that sun-drenched Main Hall… We took away an enormous amount from that week.’
Shortly afterwards, both graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London and won the Helmut Deutsch Liedwettbewerb in Vienna: ‘In Vienna, we presented some pieces we had worked on in Zeist.’ And that autumn, they performed a French programme at the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Voice-Piano Competition in Paris, where they won the Prix de mélodie. A particularly great honour for a German/American duo performing in France. It made their love for the French mélodie grow, they wrote: ‘There is simply something about the melodic nature of the language.’
Since then, their star has been on the rise. After winning the Young Artist Platform in 2024, they returned to Zeist last year. During the recital Showcases did you hear them with a programme fitting the theme Futures in which they even performed an AI-generated lied. On Sunday 15 March, during the Oxford International Lied Festival, they will present a programme around Wagner's Wesendonck Liederand works by composers who all had a strong connection with Wagner.
Conversely, you can Saturday 23 May listening to two Young Artists participating in the talent development programme in Oxford: mezzo-soprano Ellen Pearson and pianist Francesca Lauri.