*Edith Wiens*
Canadian soprano Edith Wiens’ beautiful, versatile voice and assured musicality embraced an astonishingly vast repertoire from the baroque to the contemporary. She has collaborated with the world’s foremost conductors and orchestras, including the New York, Berlin, London, Munich and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras; Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and San Francisco Symphonies, the London Philharmonia, Dresden Staatskapelle and Cleveland Orchestras, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Orchestre National de France and Orchestre de Paris; under such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Bernard Haitink, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Sir Georg Solti.
Edith Wiens is an Officer of the Order of Canada and has been a recipient of several honorary doctorate degrees, including a Doctor of Music from her alma mater Oberlin College. She is a jury member of various international competitions such as ARD Munich, Bertelsmann Neue Stimmen, Montreal and Geneva.  Edith Wiens regularly holds masterclasses in Europe and North America, including the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School in London, the Young Ensembles of the Munich, Frankfurt and Dresden opera houses, in Salzburg and Vienna, and at Ravinia.  Prof. Wiens is also the artistic director of the summer Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, created for emerging artists. As of fall 2010, Edith Wiens has joined the Vocal Arts faculty of The Juilliard School in New York.  Students of Edith Wiens are singing at major festivals, with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra, and at many opera houses world-wide, including the Metropolitan Opera, Munich Opera and Vienna State Opera. Ms. Wiens lives in New York and in Munich with her cellist husband Kai Moser. Both their sons are acclaimed musicians: Johannes Moser (cello) and Benjamin Moser (piano).
[“edithwiens.com”:http://edithwiens.com]
The Dutch soprano *Maartje Rammeloo* studied both classical singing as well as musical theatre at the Fontys Conservatory in Tilburg. In 2008 she received her Master’s degree (cum laude) specialising in Operetta and Classical Musical Theatre. She studied with Edward Hoepelman, Wilma Bierens and Marc Krone.
She took part in masterclasses by Roberta Alexander, Elly Ameling, Bernarda Finck, and Edith Wiens, among others. For over 5 years Maartje studied with the worldrenowned mezzo-soprano Jard van Nes. Now, she works with coaches Ira Siff and Peter Nilsson.
Maartje played several operatic roles, including Monica (The Medium, Menotti), Merab (Saul, Handel), Saffi (Der Zigeunerbaron, Strauss) and Adina (l’Elisir d’Amore, Donizetti), with companies such as Muziektheater Transparant and Stichting Internationale Operaproducties. She participated in festivals like the ITSfestival and Operadagen Rotterdam. During Resident Artists Productions of the Nationale Reisopera she played the roles of Giulietta (Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Offenbach) and Cunegonde (Candide, Bernstein).
Last year, she made her debut at De Nederlandse Opera as Prêtresse (Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck), working with director Pierre Audi, conductor Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. Her next engagements are a.o. Le Roi David (Honneger) and Musetta (La Bohème, Puccini).
In addition to these operas, Maartje regularly performs as a soloist in major oratorios such as Messiah (Handel), Matthäus Passion (Bach), Davidde Penitente (Mozart), Die Schöpfung (Haydn), Ein Deutsches Requiem (Brahms) en Magnificat (Rutter).She worked with conductors such as Marc Minkowski, Jac van Steen, Robbert van Steijn, Anthony Hermus and Wouter Padberg.
In 2008, Maartje received the Staetshuys Fonds Prize at the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The next year, she was a finalist in the Humor Wettbewerb at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and recently she won the Jo Bollekamp Prize for most promising soloist during the oratorio vocalist presentation of the Dutch Choir Federation.
This year, Maartje can be seen in two completely new opera creations. First of all, “The Tsar”, an opera about Tsar Peter the Great, performed during festivals like the Grachtenfestival at the Hermitage in Amsterdam. And, secondly, in December she will sing the main female role in jHEROnimus, a dramatic new opera about the famous painter Jeroen Bosch.
[“maartjerammeloo.nl”:http://maartjerammeloo.nl]