Vida Matičič, soprano: March 2014

13^th March

Singing evening
19.30 @ Bernhard Haitinkzaal, Conservatorium van Amsterdam

G. F. Handel - Armida's aria from opera Rinaldo
"Dunque i laci d'un volto...Ah, crudel"

C. Gounod - Juliette's Poison scene from opera Romeo et Juliette

Vida Matičič, soprano
Jan-Paul Grijpink, piano

18^th March

Master Research Symposium
13:00 - Sweelinckzaal, Conservatorium van Amsterdam

Presentation of my Master Research Project
"Singing in Slovenian - with help of International Phonetic Alphabet"

Lecture-recital

Slovenian language is not the first language one would choose to sing in and therefore Slovenian repertoire also does not get picked up by non-Slovenian singers. Classical singers are used to sing in Italian, German, French, English, also Russian, Czech. When one has a problem with one of these languages - either not speaking it, never learned it or simply not being sure how to pronounce a particular word - one can turn to many sources based on the International Phonetic Alphabet. The alphabet gives singers a chance to sing in a language they never spoke, simply by knowing which symbol presents which sound and by following a pre-made text transcription.

In this presentation Vida Matičič Malnaršič will give us an insight in her research project where she designed a collection of materials “Voices of Slovenian language” consisting inter alia of Chart of Slovenian sounds, selected Art Song texts with IPA transcriptions, word-to-word translations to English et cetera, all being her own work.

She will take us through the Research project presentation where five non-Slovenian-speaking participants studied the materials. They presented what they achieved (with or without coaching) by singing Slovenian Art Songs to a jury of native Slovenian speakers who judged their pronunciation.

This will be followed by explanation of results, discoveries and future recommendations.

We will also have a chance to hear the research participants singing in Slovenian.

The research participants - non-Slovenian singing students of Conservatorium van Amsterdam will perform a few Slovenian Art Songs by Ipavec, Jenko and Vilhar.

Biography

Soprano Vida Matičič comes from Slovenia where she began her singing studies at Cerknica Music school and continued at Koper Art grammar school in the class of Nina Kompare Volasko. She competed at Slovenian National Competition for Young Musicians and received silver diploma in 2004, 2006 and 2008. She was the youngest finalist of the 2008 International Competition for singers “Sehizzi” in Italy. She graduated from Bachelor and Master studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in The Netherlands in the class of Valerie Guillorit. Vida was a semi-finalist of the 50th International Vocal Competition ‘s-Hertogenbosch as the only Slovenian representative and got a great review and feedback on her performance. She was one of the five chosen singers who enjoyed a private group session with Dame Kiri te Kanawa. Vida’s repertoire is versatile and so are the many projects she has been involved in. Slovenian Contemporary Song repertoire was one of her first bigger achievements containing three recitals with pianist Ajda Kanalec in the organisation of Jeunesse Musicales Slovenia. Opera Playground (European Opera Days, The Netherlands) gave her the base for experimenting inside the contemporary opera. She was one of the ‘New Voices’ of 2014 Nieuwe Stemmen Young Artist Program and performed at Rotterdam Operadays in Vivier’s Love Songs. With Timothy Nelson she staged Schumann’s beloved cycle Frauenliebe und Leben into a theatrical performance. Opera is her biggest passion. She performed as Marcellina in Escales Liriques production of Le Nozze di Figaro (France) and as Fiordiligi in the production of Opera aan Zee festival (The Netherlands). Her opera debut will be on 22nd March 2016 in the role of Euridice in the Orfeo ed Euridice production of the Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Background photo by Tomaž Penko