“Lied the Future” is a programme that supports young talent at international level in the field of art song and chamber music. It is promoted by the Asociación Franz Schubert, the entity tasked with organising the prestigious Schubertíada festival, which we support and which, year after year, increases its impact and enhances the promotion of new artists, making the most of the festival’s capacity for national and international projection.

The programme reinforces the pedagogical dimension already established by the Asociación Franz Schubert since 1994 with the International Lied Course, complemented since 2017 by the Academia de la Schubertíada, which serves to link the educational and concert performance aspects of the Association’s work. In this way, “Lied the Future” is orchestrated around three pillars: the year-round organisation of a Lied course and Lied master-classes; mentoring in the form of four months’ support offered to eight music scholarship holders and delivered by highly respected musicians (this year, soprano Dorothea Röschmann, pianist Wolfram Rieger and tenor Christoph Prégardien); and a concert bursary arranged for the selected students.

In fact, the concert bursary is a new feature this year and provides a platform for the young scholarship holders to access job placements and professional experience. This year, the young artists have not only been able to perform in Vilabertran as part of the Schubertíada festival, but they have also had the opportunity to perform in a full circuit of remunerated concerts at prestigious festivals and music cycles throughout Spain (Pals, Reus, Figueres, Manlleu, Valls, Vic, the Círculo del Liceu and the Recinte San Pau in Barcelona, Madrid, Segura de la Sierra, Salamanca) and also in Europe, with the international Lied Festival in Zeist (the Netherlands).

18-08-23. Schubertíada – Canònica de Santa Maria de Vilabertran. Foto: David Borrat“The mission of Lied the Future is to offer the participants a rounded pedagogical and professional experience. It is not so much a rigid training course as a project that involves learning-by-doing; it consists of preparing for a professional concert with the guidance of expert teachers and professionals who do not normally carry out this type of activity in Spain. The fact that the instructors are musicians and concert singers who the participants know and admire as artists, reinforces the motivational aspect for the students.” explains Victor Medem, managing director of the Schubertíada festival.

In addition, Medem highlights the promotional aspect that the concert bursary provides for the young performers: “These concerts serve as a network that significantly extends the programme’s reach and resonance, as they have an impact on audiences and also on the experience of the scholarship holders. With this concert bursary, the programme has developed from being exclusively about training to becoming a tool to aid the young musicians’ progression into the professional world, because, in addition to the concert experience itself and the fact that they are remunerated, the programme puts them in contact with promotional agents, journalists and other musicians, who will become a professional network for them.”

The festival director explained that for next year they already have confirmation of forthcoming performances with prestigious partners in Cáceres (at the Festival Atrium Musicae which will take place in February and which we also support) and in Valls, Figueres, Terrassa, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich and Logroño, among other concerts pending confirmation.

The eight students with scholarships granted under the “Lied the Future” programme are:

– Katja Maderer, soprano (Germany)

– Amadeus Wiesensee, piano (Germany)

– Jonas Müller, Baritone (Germany)

– Anna Gebhardt, piano (Germany)

– Elionor Martínez, soprano (Catalonia)

– Olivia Zaugg, piano (Switzerland)

– Mireia Tarragó, soprano (Catalonia)

– Carmen Santamaría, piano (Cantabria)

For more information, see this article from La Vanguardia: The future ‘Euroleague’ of Lied takes shape here in Spain