Sunday, 4/27/2025
at 5:00 PM



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Vocal and instrumental women's power:
Sandra Urba is a sought-after pianist for solo and chamber music concerts. Currently, she is a lecturer at the "Emmerich-Smola-Music School" and Music Academy of the City of Kaiserslautern.
Marie Heeschen captivates her audience with her sensual and versatile voice. Her playful and natural stage presence has been showcased since 2016 as a permanent ensemble member at the Theater Bonn. The two talented musicians entertain the audience with a German-French evening program.

Sandra Urba:
It is her profound understanding of music, strong stage presence, and precise playing style that elevates Sandra Urba into the ranks of successful young pianists. Her musical expressiveness is refreshingly dynamic, very subtle, and stands out for its lightness and transparency. She impresses with interpretations free from vanity. Sandra Urba has won many awards at national and international piano competitions and has received numerous accolades and prizes, including the Ibach Prize, the Prize of the German Music Life Foundation, and the Grant of the Werner Richard - Dr. Carl Dörken Foundation. She was also a scholarship recipient of the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation in Hamburg, the Anna Ruths Foundation in Frankfurt am Main, won the Ottilie Selbach-Redslob Foundation Prize twice in Berlin, and was part of the foundation program of the "Yehudi Menuhin - LiveMusicNow e.V." She is a sought-after pianist for solo and chamber music concerts. She has performed in prestigious concert halls such as the Düsseldorf Tonhalle, Cologne Philharmonie, Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, Schumann Haus in Leipzig, Sendesaal Bremen, Erholungshaus Leverkusen, and Zeughaus Neuss. As a soloist, she has been invited by orchestras including the Bochum Symphoniker, Landeskapelle Altenburg/Thüringen, Philharmonisches Orchester Bacau, Kammerorchester Neuss, and the Orchestra of the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern. As a chamber musician, Urba has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Matthias Buchholz, Andra Darzins, and the Eldering Ensemble. Her diverse repertoire is enriched by performances in the field of song interpretation with her duo partner Marie Heeschen. Sandra Urba's debut CD with works by Schumann was released in 2013, as well as a chamber music CD with piano trios by Beethoven, Spohr, and Mendelssohn in 2018 under the Genuin label. Additionally, she has recorded live broadcasts for WDR3, Deutschlandfunk, and SWR2. Until 2020, she taught piano at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, as well as at the University of Paderborn. She is currently a lecturer at the Emmerich-Smola Music School and Music Academy of the City of Kaiserslautern. Born into a family of musicians, Sandra Urba studied with Anatol Ugorski, Alfredo Perl, Jacob Leuschner, and Pavel Gililov. In 2015, she graduated with honors from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. Numerous masterclasses complemented her musical education, including with Mikhail Voskresensky, Homero Francesch, Arie Vardi, Victor Merzhanov, Dmitry Bashkirov, and András Schiff.

Marie Heeschen:
Vocal and dramatic women's power: Marie Heeschen. Opernwelt, January 2020. Marie Heeschen captivates her audience with her sensually flowing and versatile voice. Her playful and natural stage presence has been proven since 2016 as a permanent ensemble member at the Theater Bonn, where she excelled in roles like Atalanta (Xerxes), Poppea (Agrippina), Valencienne (The Merry Widow), Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), Marzelline (Fidelio), Clorinde (La Cenerentola), and Oscar (Un ballo di maschera). She also received enthusiastic press feedback for her role as the vocally-exuberant Tussy in Jonathan Dove's opera Marx in London. In the 2023/24 season, Marie Heeschen will perform as Ninetta (The Love for Three Oranges) at the Theater Bonn and as Adele (Die Fledermaus) at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt. In addition to opera, the versatile and curious singer is passionate about other genres. With her ensemble Paper Kite, consisting of two violins and Basso Continuo, Marie Heeschen focuses on the lesser-known cantata repertoire of the German and Italian Baroque. The ensemble, appreciated for its chamber music spirit and finely balanced sound, was awarded the Biagio Marini Prize in 2013 and has released two CDs under Coviello Classics: Besides a world premiere of Giovanni Legrenzi's sonatas and cantatas, the album Happy a time features works by Giovanni Bononcini and Domenico Scarlatti. The album Abend-Andacht presents works from the time of the Thirty Years' War. Another focus of Marie Heeschen is contemporary music. The ensemble BRuCH, founded in 2013 with Sally Beck (flute), Ella Rohwer (cello), and Claudia Chan (piano), focuses on interpreting impressionistic works combined with music from the 20th and 21st centuries and has already worked with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Gordon Kampe, and Johannes Schöllhorn. The unconventional quartet regularly develops new works with young composers like Ricardo Eizirik, Matthias Krüger, Julien Jamet, Thea Soti, and Huihui Cheng. Since 2020, the musicians have presented their own concert series in Cologne. Last season, the ensemble was a summer resident at the Kloster Royaumont before premiering a new work by Lukas Ligeti at the Essen Festival NOW! together with the band Burkina Electric led by the composer in the fall. Marie Heeschen has performed as a soloist at the Handel Festival in Halle, the Oude Muziek Festival in Utrecht, the Cologne Acht-Brücken-Festival, the MAfestival in Brugge, and the Konzerthaus Kristiansand. Recent highlights include performances in Bach's St. John Passion with the RIAS Kammerchor in Basel and Lucerne, her debut at the Vienna Musikverein with the Bach Consort Wien, as well as the premiere of Samuel Penderbayne's Unsex Me Here after Shakespeare's Macbeth at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg with the Ensemble Resonanz. In the 2023/24 season, Marie Heeschen will be heard as a soloist at the Berliner Philharmonie in Mozart's Requiem and at the Cologne Philharmonie in Arthur Honegger's King David, among others. Marie Heeschen studied singing with Christoph Prégardien and Lioba Braun in Cologne. She also completed studies in the fields of new music and chamber music with David Smeyers and Barbara Maurer in Essen. Masterclasses and lessons with Klesie Kelly-Moog, Ruth Ziesak, Martin Kränzle, and Jil Feldman complemented her education.

Admission from: 4:00 PM.

Event data provided by: Reservix

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Moderierter Deutsch Französischer Liederabend - Sandra Urba & Marie Heeschen