Christmas Concert

03.12.2007

A Christmas Concert by Pille Lill, soprano, Oliver Kuusik, tenor, and Piia Paemurru, pianist, on Monday, 3 December 2007 at 19.00 o’clock in Christians Kirke, Strandgade 1, 1401 Copenhagen K.

Admission is free. Everybody is welcome!


PROGRAMME

G. F. Händel  Aria Comfort ye... Every valley
( oratorio Messiah)
G. F. Händel - Aria Let the Bright Serafim (opera Samson)
G. F. Händel - Aria Lascia ch’io pianga (opera Rinaldo)
W. A. Mozart - Hallelujah (motet Exultate, Jubilate)
W. A. Mozart - Aria of Tamino ( opera The Magic Flute)
W. A. Mozart - Aria of Donna Anna (opera Don Giovanni)
C. Frank - Panis Angelicus
P. Tosti - Ideale
P. Tosti - À Vucchella
E. Grieg - En dröm
E. Grieg - Jag älskar dig
F. Schubert - Ave Maria
H. Martin, R. Blane - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
I. Berlin - White Christmas
A. L. Webber - Pie Jesu
A. Adam - O Holy Night

Pille Lill began her musical studies at the piano. She earned two degrees at the Estonian Academy of Music, one in music pedagogy, the other in opera singing. She continued her studies at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama, earned her Master's degree from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and is currently completing her doctoral programme at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Prof. Jaakko Ryhänen.
Ms. Lill has performed as an opera, oratorio and concert soloist in many countries. She has appeared in some 30 leading opera roles including Countess (Mozart, “Le Nozze di Figaro”), Mimi (Puccini, “La Boheme”), Cio-cio-san (Puccini, “Madama Butterfly”), Tosca (Puccini, “Tosca”), Elisabeth (Verdi, “Don Carlos”), Desdemona (Verdi, “Othello”), Violetta (Verdi, “La Traviata”), Elvira (Verdi, “Ernani”), Amelia (Verdi, “Un Ballo in Maschera”), Lady Macbeth (Verdi, “Macbeth”), Aida (Verdi, "Aida"), Venus (Wagner, “Tannhäuser”), Lisa (Tchaikovsky, "The Queen of Spades"). Her oratorio and recital repertoire includes Mozart, Mahler, Verdi, Beethoven, Tobias. She has received the Estonian Best Singer Award, the Georg Ots Prize and the Richard Wagner Society Prize, among others.
Since 1997, Pille Lill has been teaching at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. Four years ago she launched the Pille Lill Music Fund in support of young professional musicians in Estonia.

Oliver Kuusik studied at the Estonian Academy of Music under Pille Lill and Prof. Virgilius Noreika. In 2004, he received a Master of Arts degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, two years later he completed the school’s opera studio programme. He has participated in numerous master classes (with Sally Burgess, Sarah Walker, Graham Clark, Robin Bowman, and Ian Burnside, among others). Mr. Kuusik has performed as soloist in several major works (Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, etc). He has won the “Estonia’s Most Talented Young Singer” Grand Prix and high prizes at several competitions. Mr. Kuusik’s debut on the opera stage was in 2002 (in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury”) at the international Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Eastbourne, UK. After that he has performed in Tshaikovsky’s “Jevgeni Onegin” (M. Triquet), Hindemith’s "Hin und Zurück" (Der Weise), Martinu’s “Comedy in Bridge” (Schoolmaster), Ravel’s “L’heure Espagnol” (Torquemada) and Dove’s “The Little Green Swallow” (Brighella). His solo concerts have taken him to Finland, Sweden, Latvia and Great Britain.

Piia Paemurru graduated from the Tallinn Conservatory and earned her Master’s degree in piano in 1999 from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre where she now also works. She is a highly valued ensemble partner in both Estonia and Scandinavia.  Ms. Paemurru has recorded several CDs, two of them with the Swedish singer Ingegerd Björklund.