About the Artists

After completing her studies at Grieg Academy of Music in Bergen, Norway, and the Royal Danish Academy of Music, soprano Lise Davidsen won a number of notable awards, including the first prize, Birgit Nilsson Award, and Audience Prize at the 2015 Operalia competition. During the 2019–20 season, she made a celebrated Met debut as Lisa in The Queen of Spades and also appeared as Leonore in Fidelio at Covent Garden and in concert in Montreal, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes in concert at Bucharest’s George Enescu Festival, and in concert with a number of leading orchestras throughout Europe. She made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in the summer of 2019 as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. Other recent performances include Elisabeth at the Bavarian State Opera and in Zurich; Lisa in Stuttgart; the Third Norn in Götterdämmerung, Ortlinde in Die Walküre, and Freia in Das Rheingold at Covent Garden; the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos in Aix-en-Provence and at the Vienna State Opera; and the title role of Cherubini’s Medea at Wexford Festival Opera. She has also sung Ariadne at the Glyndebourne Festival, Isabella in Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot in Buenos Aires, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana at Norwegian National Opera, Agathe in Der Freischütz in Zurich, and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and the Dog and the Owl in The Cunning Little Vixen at the Royal Danish Opera.

Born in South Africa, pianist James Baillieu studied at the University of Cape Town and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was appointed a Hodgson Junior Fellow in 2007, a Professor of Piano Accompaniment in 2011, and awarded an ARAM in 2012. An accomplished chamber musician, soloist, and accompanist, he regularly collaborates with singers and instrumentalists, including Lise Davidsen, the Heath Quartet, Adam Walker, Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Pumeza Matshikiza, Allan Clayton, Jacques Imbrailo, Ailish Tynan, and John Mark Ainsley. He has appeared in performance at Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna’s Musikverein, Bridgewater Hall, National Concert Hall Dublin, and the Bergen, Spitalfields, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Bath, City of London, St. Magnus, Norfolk & Norwich, Brighton, Verbier, and Aix-en-Provence Festivals. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Ulster Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, and at the Petworth Festival with the Wiener Kammersymphonie. An innovative programmer, he has curated a number of projects, including series for the Brighton Festival, Wigmore Hall, BBC Radio 3, Verbier Festival, Bath International Festival, and Perth Concert Hall.