Andrè Schuen - Daniel Heide

The baritone Andrè Schuen comes from the Ladin region of La Val (South Tyrol, Italy) and grew up there speaking three languages - Ladin, Italian and German, a versatility that is reflected in his current vocal repertoire. After playing the cello as his main instrument for many years, he decided to study singing at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Prof. Horiana Branisteanu and song and oratorio with Prof. Wolfgang Holzmair. Following his studies, Andrè Schuen was a member of the Graz Opera ensemble.

Andrè Schuen performs two major Mozart roles in Festival Summer 21: the title role in Nozze di Figaro (dir: Lotte de Beer / d: Thomas Hengelbrock) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Director: Christof Loy / D: Joana Mallwitz) at the Salzburg Festival. He has already appeared in these two roles and as Don Giovanni at the Theater an der Wien in Nikolaus Harnoncourt's acclaimed Da Ponte cycle. As Guglielmo, he made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera last season. At the Vienna State Opera, he will once again take on the title role of Pushkin's drama set to music by Tchaikovsky in the 21/22 season Eugene Onegin  (musical direction: Tomáš Hanus / staging: Dmitri Tscherniakov), the Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and the Olivier in Capriccio by Richard Strauss. Further guest appearances include the Bavarian State Opera (Belcore/Elisir d'amore) and to Madrid to the Teatro Real (Conte/Nozze di Figaro). In the new opera by Manfred Trojahn Euridice - The lovers, blind Andrè Schuen can be seen in the role of Orpheus. The work will be premiered in March 2022 in a production by Pierre Audi and under the musical direction of Eric Nielsen.

In November 21, Andrè Schuen will perform the title role in Mendelssohn's Elias with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons. This is immediately followed by a tour by the Ensemble Pygmalion under the direction of Raphael Pichon with Brahms' German Requiem to Versailles, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, Vienna and Essen. Past highlights on the concert stage include performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Simon Rattle, the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding.

Lied singing is particularly important to Andrè Schuen, together with his piano partner Daniel Heide. The duo are now regular guests at the Schubertiade in Hohenems and Schwarzenberg, where they will perform all three Schubert song cycles in August 2021. This will be followed in September by a Lieder recital tour with Schubert's Miller from the Rheingau Music Festival to Eppan in South Tyrol and the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia. Andrè Schuen can be heard around the world in song centers such as London's Wigmore Hall, the Teatro della Zarzuela in Madrid, the Schubertiada Vilabertran, the Heidelberger Frühling or the Oxford Lieder Festival, as well as at renowned concert venues such as Munich's Prinzregententheater, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw or the Vienna Konzerthaus. Andrè Schuen celebrated his US debut with Andreas Haefliger in 2017 with recitals at the Tanglewood Festival and the Aspen Music Festival.

Andrè Schuen and Daniel Heide have received the best international reviews for their recordings. Most recently, Schubert's Beautiful miller for Deutsche Grammophon: Andrè Schuen exclusively records the three great Schubert song cycles for the "Yellow Label".

Weimar-born pianist Daniel Heide is one of the most sought-after lied accompanists and chamber musicians of his generation. Since studying at the Franz Liszt Academy in his home town with Prof. Ludwig Bätzel and receiving groundbreaking inspiration from Christa Ludwig and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, he has performed throughout Europe and Asia.

He has worked closely with singers such as Andrè Schuen, Christoph Prégardien, Konstantin Krimmel, Julian Pregardien, Simone Kermes, Katharina Konradi, Patrick Grahl, Ingeborg Danz, Britta Schwarz, Johannes Weisser, Roman Trekel and Natalie Perez, among many others.

He worked closely with the German-Greek mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis. Their jointly recorded CD "Poemes" with songs by Claude Debussy received the German Record Critics' Award.

As a partner in sonata recitals, he has performed with soloists such as Tabea Zimmermann, Antje Weithaas, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Jens Peter Maintz, Friedemann Eichhorn, Andreas Willwohl, Barbara Buntrock, Julian Steckel, Isang Enders, Konstanze von Gutzeit, Benoit Fromanger, Danjulo Ishizaka and the Mandelring Quartet.

The founding of the concert series "Der lyrische Salon - Liederabende auf Schloss Ettersburg" in 2011 was an important impetus for his career as a Lied accompanist. As the pianistic partner of a large number of renowned vocal soloists, he has already performed over 70 recitals there.

In addition to his busy concert schedule, his work is documented on a large number of CD releases. Recent releases include "Dichterliebe" with tenor Patrick Grahl (AVI, 2020), "Liebende" with soprano Katharina Konradi (AVI, 2021) and the eagerly awaited release of the cycle "Die Schöne Müllerin" with Andrè Schuen (Deutsche Grammophon, 2021)

His first CD with songs by Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf and Frank Martin, which he recorded together with the South Tyrolean baritone Andrè Schuen on the AVI label, was awarded the ECHO Klassikpreis in the "Best Young Singer" category in 2016. The subsequent release "Wanderer", also with Andrè Schuen, received an OPUS Klassikpreis in 2019.

He is currently recording Franz Liszt's complete song oeuvre on 7 CDs for the Cavi-music label and is compiling a new catalog of his songs.

Daniel Heide loves working in a melodramatic context, for example in programs with Christian Brückner, Thomas Thieme, Hanns Zischler, Markus Meyer, Sky Dumont and Udo Samel.

He taught lied interpretation, chamber music and accompaniment for 13 years at the universities of Berlin (Hanns Eisler) and Weimar (Franz Liszt). He is currently continuing this work in master classes and private coaching sessions. One of his main focuses is the promotion of young lieder singers and their piano partners.

In 2019, together with his wife Ulrike Mönnig and the ACC-Galerie Weimar, he initiated the discussion series "Brotlose Kunst" (Breadless Art), in which he puts his guests on their toes, asks them about the dedication and self-(abandonment) of their (artistic) work and scrutinizes current educational paths of various artistic professions.

With the start of the corona pandemic in March 2020, Daniel Heide returned to studying the piano solo repertoire. The focus was and still is on the 32 sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven and sonatas by Franz Schubert, which can be heard in numerous solo recitals. Further evidence of this new focus is Heide's first solo release at the end of August:

A Vol.1 with 4 piano sonatas by Ludwig Van Beethoven, including the famous "Pathetique". Further volumes (all CaviMusic) will follow in 2022.