Cast

Tenor

Aaron Godfrey-Mayes

Birthplace:
Mansfield, United Kingdom

Studies:
Mascarade Emerging Artist (2022-2023)
Mascarade Opera Studio (2021-2022)
Advanced Diploma, Royal Academy Opera
Master of Arts, Royal Academy of Music
Bachelor of Music, Royal Academy of Music

Master class:
Allan Clayton, Royal Academy of Music
Dennis O’Neill, Royal Academy of Music
Carmen Santoro, Mascarade Opera Studio
Ann Murray
Ian Partridge, Royal Academy of Music

Prizes:
1 st place, Royal Academy of Music Pavarotti Prize
3 rd place & Wil Keune Mozart Prize, Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition
1 st place, David Clover Festival of Singing Recital Prize
19 th century Italian opera prize, Mozart Singing Competition
Prize winner, Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award
1 st place, Nottinghamshire Masonic Music Association Bursary

Relation to the Hamburg State Opera:
Member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera since the season 2023/24

Important parts:
Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Flute (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Alì (Adina), Albert Herring (Albert Herring), Triquet (Eugene Onegin)

Stages:
Teatro La Fenice, Garsington Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Königliches Kurtheater Bad Wildbad, et al.

Cooperation with directors:
Oliver Mears, Marie Lambert-Le Bihan, Noa Naamat, Douglas Boyd, Paul Curran, Federico Grazzini, Pedro Ribeiro, Jean-Romain Vesperini, et al.

Cooperation with conductors:
Philippe Herreweghe, Trevor Pinnock, Iain Ledingham, Luciano Acocella, Jonathan Santagada, Douglas Boyd, Sian Edwards, Peter Robinson, Matthew Scott Rogers, Nicholas Chalmers, Dionysis Grammenos, Tom Seligman, et al.

Performances

• Jubiläumsgala: 30 Jahre Internationales Opernstudio
• Dollhouse
• La Bohème
• Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
• „Muss denn in diesem Land immer alles politisch sein?“
• Les Contes d'Hoffmann
• Auf in den Urwald!
• Il trovatore
• La Traviata
• Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)
• Die dunkle Seite des Mondes
• Salome
• Konzert des Internationalen Opernstudios

photo: Jörn Kipping

Piano

Robert Jacob

Birthplace:
Oravita, Romania

Studies:
Piano at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg with Hanae Nakajima,
graduation with an artistic diploma

Reference to the State Opera:
Solo coach at the State Oper Hamburg (since 2019)

Career stages:
Solo coach at the State Opera Hamburg (since 2019), Director of studies at Meininger Staatstheater (since 2014), Harpsichordist and coach at the Kammeroper Munich (2006-2009), Solo coach at Meininger Staatstheater (2009), Coach for opera and ensemble at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg (2008), Lecturer for scenic classes at the Bayerische Theaterakademie “August Everding” (2006), Supervision of the opera productions during studies at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg (until 2005)

Cooperations:
Kent Nagano, Paolo Cararignani, Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli, Christoph Prick et al.

Performances

• Auf in den Urwald!

photo: privat

1st Violin

Piotr Pujanek

A native of Poland, Piotr Pujanek studied with Bartosz Bryła in Poznan and completed a concert degree at the Berlin University of the Arts, where Ilan Gronich was his teacher. He attended master courses with Thomas Brandis, Kolja Blacher, Christian Tetzlaff and Igor Oistrach. In 2003 he received the Encouragement Award at the Gerhard Taschner Competition in Berlin. He gathered experience as an orchestral musician playing with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Since 2006 he has been a member of the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra.

Performances

• Auf in den Urwald!

photo: Foto: Claudia Höhne

Cello

Brigitte Maaß

Brigitte Maaß began playing the cello in 1972. From 1975 to 1983, Edwin Koch was her teacher; she then became a junior student of Arthur Troester at the Lübeck Music Academy. In 1984 she began studying with David Geringas, graduating in 1990. Since 1992 Brigitte Maaß has been a member of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. As part of her numerous chamber music activities, she actively promotes contemporary music.

Performances

• Auf in den Urwald!

photo: Claudia Höhne

Clara de Groote

Clara de Groote was born in Frankfurt am Main in 2002. She started playing the violin at the age of five and later switched to the drumset until she finally found her way to classical percussion in 2015.
In 2018, Clara became a junior student at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where she is currently studying for her bachelor's degree with professors Franz Schindlbeck, Rainer Seegers (both from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) and Biao Li.
As a member of the German National Youth Orchestra, she has performed with conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Alexander Shelley and Ingo Metzmacher in Germany's largest concert halls, including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Gewandhaus Leipzig and the Berlin Philharmonie. These tours have also taken her abroad, to Luxembourg and South Africa. She gained further orchestral experience as a substitute with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the ensemble reflektor, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, among others.
Clara has received numerous scholarships and is supported by the Mozart-Gesellschaft Dortmund and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. As part of these scholarships, she has already performed several times as a soloist with orchestras such as the dogma chamber orchestra and the Bavarian Chamber Orchestra Bad Brückenau.
From February to July 2022, she gained valuable orchestral experience as an intern in the percussion section of the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra. Since 2023, Clara has been a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO), with which she has toured throughout Europe, Mexico and the USA under conductors such as Antonio Pappano and Manfred Honeck.
She regularly performs at German chamber music festivals as part of her duo with pianist Marie Hauzel, which she founded in 2022. Clara de Groote has been a member of the Orchestra Academy of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra since April 2024.

Performances

• Auf in den Urwald!