Simon Wallfisch (born 22 May 1982) is a British-German classical singer and cellist.
Life and career
Simon Joseph Lasker Wallfisch was born in London in 1982 to a family of professional musicians: his father is British cellist
Raphael Wallfisch
Raphael Wallfisch (born 15 June 1953 in London) is a British cellist and professor of cello. As a soloist he performs regularly with leading orchestras around the world, as well as together with duo partner John York (piano), or as member of the ...
, his mother the Australian born baroque violinist
Elizabeth Wallfisch
Elizabeth Wallfisch (née Hunt; born 28 January 1952) is an Australian Baroque violinist.
Biography
Born in Melbourne, Wallfisch debuted as a concert soloist at the age of 12 and took part in such competitions as the ABC Concerto Competition. She ...
. His grandparents are cellist
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (born 17 July 1925) is a German-British cellist, and a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz.
Family
Lasker was born into a German Jewish family in Breslau, then Germany (present-day Wrocław, Poland), o ...
and pianist
Peter Wallfisch
Hans Peter Wallfisch (20 October 1924 – 10 November 1993) was a concert pianist and teacher, resident in Britain from 1951.
Life
Wallfisch was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia, in 1924. In 1938 he emigrated to Palestine; he studied at the Jerusa ...
. His older brother is composer
Benjamin Wallfisch
Benjamin Mark Lasker Wallfisch (born 7 August 1979) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and producer of film scores. Since the mid-2000s, he has worked on over 75 feature films, including composing original scores for '' Blade Ru ...
, his younger sister is singer-songwriter
Joanna Wallfisch
Joanna Wallfisch (* 1985 in London) is a British-Australian singer-songwriter and jazz singer.
Life and career
Wallfisch grew up in London in a musical family. Her father Raphael Wallfisch is a british cellist, her mother Elizabeth Wallfisch an ...
.
Education
Between 2000 and 2006, Simon Wallfisch studied at the London
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
singing, violoncello and conducting. He continued his studies at Berlin's
Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin
The in Berlin, Germany, is one of the leading universities of music in Europe. It was established in East Berlin in 1950 as the () because the older (now the Berlin University of the Arts) was in West Berlin. After the death of one of its f ...
2006/07 and until 2009 at
University of Music and Theatre Leipzig
The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...
Theater Magdeburg
Theater Magdeburg is the principal theatre organization in Magdeburg, Germany, the capital of the state Saxony-Anhalt. It was formed in 2004 with the merger of two theatres, the Theater der Landeshauptstadt (Theatre of the state capital) and the ' ...
Stadttheater Fürth
Stadttheater Fürth is a theatre in Bavaria, Germany. It was designed by the Viennese architecture office Fellner & Helmer, and completed in 1902.
Career
In 2013 he sang Escamillo in ''La tragédie de Carmen'' based on Bizet's ''Carmen'' with the
Nederlandse Reisopera
The Nederlandse Reisopera (formerly Nationale Reisopera) is a Dutch opera company based in Enschede, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the company performs an annual season of fully staged operas. The organization regularly tours their productions, and ...
, in 2015 Albert in
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
’s ''
Werther
''Werther'' is an opera (''drame lyrique'') in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel ''The S ...
'' with the
English Touring Opera
English Touring Opera (ETO) is an opera company in the United Kingdom founded in 1979 under the name Opera 80 by the then-existing Arts Council of Great Britain. In 1992 the company changed to its present name. Today it is sponsored in part by Ar ...
La Bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions ''quadri'', ''tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe G ...
'' with Orfeo InScena at the in Pisa, and 2016/17 Fieramosca in
Hector Berlioz
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
’ ''
Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...
'' as guest at
Staatstheater Nürnberg
The Staatstheater Nürnberg is a German theatre company in Nuremberg, Bavaria. The theatre is one of four Bavarian state theatres and shows operas, plays, ballets and concerts.
History
Its main venue, the opera house ("Opernhaus Nürnberg"), i ...
.
In concerts he sang
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
's
Weihnachtsoratorium
The ''Christmas Oratorio'' (German: ''Weihnachtsoratorium''), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It is in six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance on one of ...
Alexander Goehr
Peter Alexander Goehr (; born 10 August 1932) is an English composer and academic.
Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and composer Walter Goehr, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. In his early twenties he emerged as a centra ...
's "after 'The Waking'" with the Nash Ensemble at London's
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...
Wallfisch performed as cellist in the Holocaust Memorial Day programme on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
in 2015.
Discography
* 2014 – ''
Geoffrey Bush
Geoffrey Bush (23 March 1920 – 24 February 1998) was a British composer, teacher and music scholar. Largely without formal training in composition, he produced a wide range of compositions across different genres, including many songs and wor ...
Songs'', with pianist Edward Rushton.
Lyrita
Lyrita is a British European classical music, classical music record label, specializing in the works of List of British classical composers, British composers.
Lyrita began releasing LP album, LPs in October 1959 as Lyrita Recorded Edition f ...
(SRCD343)
* 2015 – ''French Songs: from la belle époque to les années folles'', with works by Caplet,
Honegger
Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 to ...
,
Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
and
Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
), with pianist Edward Rushton.
Nimbus Records
Nimbus Records is a British record company based at Wyastone Leys, Ganarew, Herefordshire. They specialise in classical music recordings and were the first company in the UK to produce compact discs.
Description
Nimbus was founded in 1972 by t ...
(NI5938)
* 2018 – ''Gesänge des Orients'', with pianist Edward Rushton. Nimbus Records (NI5971)
* 2019 – ''Robert Schumann: Songs of Love and Death'', with pianist Edward Rushton. Resonus Classics (RES10247)
* 2020 – ''Johannes Brahms: Songs of Loss and Betrayal'', with pianist Edward Rushton. Resonus Classics (RES10258)
Activism
Wallfisch is an activist against antisemitism. He gives talks and tells his family's history in schools, and accompanies his grandmother
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (born 17 July 1925) is a German-British cellist, and a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz.
Family
Lasker was born into a German Jewish family in Breslau, then Germany (present-day Wrocław, Poland), o ...
, who is a frequent guest in talkshows and interviews. He is a trustee of the International Centre for Suppressed Music (ICSM), and performed works by "classical composers who were stopped from working, forced into exile or killed by the Nazis."
Operabase
Operabase is an online database of opera performances, opera houses and companies, and performers themselves as well as their agents. Found at operabase.com, it was created in 1996 by English software engineer and opera lover Mike Gibb.Edward Sch ...