Masterclass Tuesday afternoon
Tuesday 19 May / 14.00 - 16.30 hours
Master class for professional song duos by Olaf Bär, baritone and Hans Eijsackers, piano
For musicians, staying in development after their studies is an essential part of their professional practice. Our master class is the place for young musicians to explore and renew their performance of songs. What makes this six-day, intensive course special is that singer and pianist take centre stage as an equal and inseparable unit. The closer their collaboration, the better they will be able to express everything that lies within songs. After all, a classical song combines poetry, music and history. The teachers are all seasoned song singers and pianists who will also be on stage during the festival. The knowledge and experience they bring and share makes the master class a special experience for you too.
On Saturday 23 May, the masterclass concludes with a presentation recital.
Hans Eijsackers
Great Hall
Evangelical Brotherhood
Zusterplein 12, 3703 CB Zeist
Olaf Bär
Small Hall
Evangelical Brotherhood
Zusterplein 20, 3703 CB Zeist
Olaf Bär / baritone
Olar Bär is one of the leading song singers of his generation. He has given recitals worldwide and toured extensively throughout Australia, Israel, Japan and America. Feeling equally at home in the concert hall and at the opera, Bär performed repertoire ranging from the Baroque to contemporary works. As an opera singer, Bär performed at major opera houses and festivals, including Covent Garden, La Scala di Milano, the Wiener Staatsoper and Bayreuth. He was a member of the Semper Oper in Dresden for many years and has taught song gestaltung at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden since 2004. He is also regularly invited as a jury member at numerous international competitions and to give master classes specialising in the interpretation of German Lieder.
Hans Eijsackers / piano
Hans Eijsackers studied at the conservatories of Amsterdam and The Hague, and at the European Mozart Academy in Kraków. His teachers were Gérard van Blerk, Jan Wijn and György Sebök. He won prizes at the European Piano Competition and received the Silver Vriendenkrans of the Concertgebouw. He is currently a professor at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, where in recent years he developed the curriculum for the new master's specialisation Lied.
Eijsackers performs frequently as a soloist, chamber musician and song pianist, and forms an inspired song duo with Henk Neven. In addition, he is a regular guest at home and abroad as a jury member and master class teacher and regularly visits Lithuania as ‘ambassador for the art song’. In addition, Eijsackers is artistic director of the International Student Song Duo Competition in Groningen, which took place for the seventh time in November 2024. Since 2022, he has been the artistic director of the festival together with Henk Neven.