Young Artist Platform
Thursday 21 May / 16.00 - 17.30 and 19.30 - 21.00
Exciting presentation by Next Generation song duos
This exciting presentation will introduce you to the Next Generation song duos when six young, promising duos compete for the Young Artist Platform Prize: a recital at an upcoming edition of the festival as well as at our partner Oxford International Song Festival. In addition, one duo will receive an invitation to perform Wonderfeel.
World premiere
Discover how diverse song can be in the hands of different musicians. Because commissioned by the festival, Dutch composer and pianist Jorian van Nee wrote a brand new song that will have its world premiere during this evening. It is the compulsory work for all participating duos. So you will hear it six times, but no performance will be the same.
Remarkably, Jorian was winner of the Young Artist Platform in 2025 with soprano Noëlle Drost. Would you like to hear them together? Then come to the recital on Sunday afternoon 17 May Rising water.
Jury and audience award
The jury consists of musicians who have more than earned their spurs in the profession, as well as programmers from various venues. In 2026, they are:
Click here for previous years' Young Artist Platform winners >
The programmes of the participating duos will be announced shortly before the festival.
Great Hall
Evangelical Brotherhood
Zusterplein 12, 3703 CB Zeist
Annett Andriesen / chairman of the jury
Annett Andriesen studied singing with Jos Burcksen, Meinard Kraak and Ré Koster, among others. In 1975, she was one of the prize winners of the International Vocal Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch, where she would be director from 2007 to 2018. After her studies, she performed opera roles in productions at home and abroad and sang in premieres of operas by Dutch composers.
Andriesen was a teacher at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, served on various juries at international competitions, including Dutch Classical Talent and the IVC, and is a regular panellist for the NPO Radio 4 programme Diskotabel. She is also a board member of several cultural foundations, active as a producer, advisor to the Council for Culture and advisor to the Arts Committee of the Province of Fryslân.
Henk Neven / bass-baritone - artistic director
Henk Neven is one of the most inspired song interpreters of his generation. He received the Borletti-Buitoni Fellowship, participated in the prestigious BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Scheme and was awarded the Dutch Music Prize, the highest award given to a musician working in classical music by the Ministry of OCW.
Neven works with renowned orchestras and ensembles, has performed several major opera roles and performs song recitals with leading pianists such as James Baillieu, Malcolm Martineau and his regular pianist Hans Eijsackers. Neven and Eijsackers have since released four CDs that received rave reviews. Besides his busy schedule of performances and master classes at home and abroad, Neven also regularly sits on the jury of international vocal competitions and is principal study teacher at Codarts Conservatoire Rotterdam. Since 2022, he and pianist Hans Eijsackers have formed the artistic director of the festival.
Hans Eijsackers / piano - artistic director
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.
Pauliina Tukiainen / piano
Pauliina Tukiainen has built a reputation as a versatile interpreter of the song repertoire. She studied in Finland and Germany, won numerous prizes and scholarships while studying Art Song and was coached by leading musicians such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Christoph Prégardien and Wolfgang Rihm. She has given song recitals worldwide in renowned concert halls and at international festivals.
Tukiainen is artistic advisor of the Bonner Schumannfest, where she set up a stage for young song duos. She also taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main and Freiburg. She is a popular jury member and teacher for master classes and workshops. Since October 2017, she has held a chair of ‘liedgestaltung’ at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 2026, she is one of the lecturers at the festival's master class.
Kenne Peters / programmer
Kenne Peters graduated from the Music Theatre programme at ArtEZ in Arnhem. Since 2016, he has worked as classical music programmer at Musis & Stadstheater Arnhem and combines this position with the same appointment at Stadsschouwburg and De Vereeniging Nijmegen. Peters also participates in various juries, such as Dutch Classical Talent, De Ovatie (the classical music prize of the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors) and the Keep an Eye Production Prize. In 2022, he was guest programmer at festival Wonderfeel.