Jeannette van Schaik & Peter Nilsson
Biography Jeannette van Schaik & Peter Nilsson
Jeannette van Schaik
Young Dutch soprano Jeannette van Schaik is quickly gaining recognition for her radiant voice, which combines lyrical refinement and agility with soaring top notes and is praised for her abilities to identify with a role, both vocally and on stage. She earned her degree in voice cum laude from the Conservatory of Amsterdam and is a recent graduate of the prestigious Dutch National Opera Academy.
Her debut on the opera stage as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni was met with high praise. As part of the Young Artist program she sang 1st Madrigalist in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at the Dutch National Opera, immediately followed by her international role debut as Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg. Other highlights include Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro and 1e Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Gretel in Humperdink’s Hänsel und Gretel, Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata and Click in the Dutch premier of Hanna Kulenty’s modern opera The Mother of Black Winged Dreams. In the NTR ZaterdagMatinee series of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw she portrayed Das Mädchen in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten, Wheel of Fortune Woman in Frederick Delius’ A Village to Romeo and Juliet and Anna in Verdi’s Nabucco.
Jeannette has an extensive concert repertoire which she performs regularly, highlights include Strauss’ Vier letzte lieder with Camerata RCO in Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in several performances throughout the Netherlands and the Konzerthaus in Berlin.
She has collaborated with orchestras such as the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest and Nederlands Kamerorkest, the Residentie Orkest and Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and had the pleasure of working with conductors such as Giancarlo Andretta, Sir Mark Elder, Karel Deseure, Alexander Joel, Markus Stenz and Antony Hermus and with stage-directors such as Waut Koeken, Javier Lopéz Piñón, David Prins, Andrea Breth, Alexander Oliver and Sybrand van der Werf.
Jeannette is a recipient of the Bayreuth Stipendium Prize 2018, awarded to a promising young artist by the Dutch Wagner Society.
Peter Nilsson
Born in Chicago, Peter Nilsson attended the University of Illinois, where he studied accompanying under John Wustman and voice under Dodi Protero and Mark Elyn. He worked as accompanist for the Chicago Symphony Chorus, where he worked with, among others, conductors Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, James Levine, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Georg Solti.
In 1992 he moved to The Netherlands, where he is Head of Musical Studies at the Dutch National Opera Academy. At the Dutch National Opera he worked closely with such conductors as Yves Abel, Giuliano Carella, Paolo Carignani, Hartmut Haenchen, Stefano Montanari, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Julian Reynolds, and Carlo Rizzi. Peter Nilsson is also active as accompanist for vocal master-classes, having participated in classes from, among others, Roberta Alexander, Hartmut Haenchen, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Charlotte Margiono, Nelly Miricioiu, and both series of Masterclasses given by Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh. He joined the staff of the Mezzano Festival in 2015, and of the Indemini Festival in 2018.
He has appeared in recital extensively: Chicago, Dame Myra Hess Series; London, St John’s Smith Square; numerous recitals with Charlotte Margiono (both halls of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, the Doelen, Festival Classique, Muziekgebouw aan het IJ); with Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester, Simone Riksman, Jean-François Lapointe, Olga Peretyatko in Amsterdam; with Maria Riccarda Wesseling (Venice, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Zürich Tonhalle) and Julia Westendorp (Davos and Lucerne Festivals).
