Viola Blache - Biography (short) Viola Blache’s singing stands out for its high level of emotion and musicality. She was born and raised in Leipzig, surrounded by sacred music, which gave her special access to Baroque church music, as well as a deep love of singing. She is currently studying at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Xenia Meijer, and she is specialising in the area of interdisciplinary performance to expand her range on the stage. During the coming season, Viola will perform for the first time as a soloist for the Nederlandse Bachvereniging. Under the direction of Shunske Sato, Bach's Christmas Oratorio will be performed in various concert halls in the Netherlands, and the Brockes Passion by Reinhard Keiser will be performed at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. In addition to oratorios and a broad repertoire of lieder, Viola focuses mainly on solo and of the Renaissance and Baroque. Within this specialisation, she has sung with various ensembles for historical performance, and she is a regular guest soloist at the Leipzig Bach Festival and other festivals for early music. One highlight was the performance of Bach’s St John Passion with Hans-Christoph Rademann at the opening of the Stuttgart Music Festival 2017. She loves the stage, and she played the title role of Ascanio in Pergolesi’s Lo frate`nnamorato in Guardiagrele, , among other roles. Viola was a finalist and prize-winner at the 20th International Bach Competition Leipzig 2016 and the International Telemann Competition 2017. She is focusing increasingly on interpretation of contemporary music. For example, she sang Six Turkish Folkpoems by the Dutch composer Theo Loevendie with Ed Spanjaard at Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ Amsterdam, and in 2018/2019 she appeared in De Blinden, a production by LOD muziektheater Ghent, with performances in the Théâtre National Wallonie in Brussels. Viola's passion for ensemble singing is thanks to her vocal group, Sjaella. This prize-winning ensemble was born out of friendship and a love of choral singing while its members were still children, and it appears regularly on stages across Germany and around the world. She is also a member of Collegium Vocale Gent (Philippe Herreweghe) and she is looking forward to future projects with the soloist ensemble Vox Luminis (Lionel Meunier), and the Nederlandse Bachvereniging. Viola first studied historical singing of early music with Marek Rzepka and Yosemeh Adjei in her home town of Leipzig. She also gained important musical influences from Susanna Rigacci in , and from courses by Margreet Honig, Dorothee Mields, Emma Kirkby and Peter Kooij. As well as the people that she can learn from along the way, Viola draws personal and musical inspiration from travelling and getting to know new places and languages. (Amsterdam, April 2020)