Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14 Sarah Traubel, Roman Lyulkin, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie & Vahan Mardirossian

Sarah Traubel
has emerged as one of the most fascinating vocal artists from Europe. Nominated as Opus Klassik’s 2022 “Singer of the Year”, the German soprano with her bright voice of exceptional projection is today a sought-after concert and opera singer in a wide range of repertoire, from Mozart to Wagner, Strauss and Shostakovich. Ms Traubel has collaborated with leading conductors including Daniele Gatti, Giampaolo Bisanti, Ingo Metzmacher, Markus Stenz, and Adam Fischer.

Highlights of her 2024/25 season include Sarah’s concert debut at the Mozaic Festival in California with Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Songs, and her tour of Japan with a series of song recitals and concert performances. At Oper Leipzig, she will sing Freia in Wagner’s Das Rheingold, following her acclaimed debut as Helmwige in Die Walküre. Concert appearances will also see her with Strauss’ Four Last Songs, for her return to the Polish National Radio Symphony, as well as at Auditorio Nacional de Madrid. Richard Wagner will also be at the centre of several other concert programmes, including at Haus Wahnfried in Bayreuth. With her accompanist Helmut Deutsch, she appeared at the Lavaux Classic Festival in Cully and will return to Konzerthaus Blaibach and other European recital venues, with Mahler, Strauss and Wagner.

Sarah Traubel’s recent concert highlights include Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, Mahler's Symphony No. 4 and Rückert Lieder, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14. She has repeatedly performed Richard Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder, including with the Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claus Peter Flor, and with the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Scott Yoo. In 2024 she had her acclaimed debut at Berlin’s Philharmonie, in Gounod’s Messe solenelle de Sainte Cécile. With the Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato, she sang the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. In 2021, Sarah had her début at the Cervantino Festival with the Symphony No. 14 by Dmitri Shostakovich, a work that she also performed and recorded with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie in 2023. Ms Traubel also appeared in Mozart and Haydn concert arias together with The English Concert.

In her 2024/25 operatic season, Sarah Traubel will once be heard as Agathe in Weber's Der Freischütz and in the title role of Lortzing's Undine. At Oper Leipzig, she will also return to her roles of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Violetta in La Traviata. Having appeared as Sophie in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra NOSPR conducted by Lawrence Foster, alongside Sophie Koch as Octavian, she will return to this work as Marschallin, again conducted by Maestro Foster. Her interpretation of the role of Inanna in Jörg Widmann's opera BABYLON at the State Theatre Wiesbaden in 2022 earned her rave reviews (“Dominating ... stunning”: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; “Amazing ... highly convincing presence”: Hessischer Rundfunk). She portrayed Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni in León. At the Festival International de Beaune 2022, she sang the role of Amenaide in Rossini's Tancredi under the baton of Jérémie Rhorer.

A former member of the Young Singers Programme at Zurich Opera, Sarah Traubel appeared in Zurich among other roles as Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute/Mozart), Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream/Britten), and Engel (Palestrina/ Pfitzner). In 2020 she was invited to sing her farewell from her long-time role as Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte/Mozart) at the Festival de Beaune, in Jerusalem and at Musikfest Bremen, among others. In Darmstadt she sang Ilia (Idomeneo/Mozart). Critically acclaimed role débuts of 2020 also included the role of Contessa in a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro.

A passionate actress on the opera stage, Sarah Traubel has collaborated with eminent stage directors including Harry Kupfer, Katharina Thoma, Jan Esslinger, Joan Anton Rechi, Paco Azorín, Nina Russi, and Jens-Daniel Herzog.

Her SONY Classical debut CD "Arias for Josepha" of Mozart and other virtuoso coloratura arias was released in 2020 and received worldwide critical acclaim, including a four-star review by Gramophone ("A colourful debut ... Sublime."). Her 2022 CD release "In meinem Lied“, together with pianist Helmut Deutsch (on Aparté), featuring songs by Liszt, Mahler, Strauss and Korngold, brought her nominations for the Opus Klassik Award as "Female Singer of the Year" and "Solo Vocal Recording of the Year". Her latest album, featuring arias by Bach and works for soprano by Schönberg and Berg, was released in March 2023 ("De Profundis," on Aparté).

Sarah Traubel, grandniece of legendary Metropolitan Opera soprano Helen Traubel and of conductor Günter Wand, began her singing career in her hometown of Mannheim, Germany, at age seventeen. Following her studies at Universität der Künste in Berlin, she graduated from the Salzburg Mozarteum with distinction. Sarah also obtained a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. In addition to her formation by Barbara Bonney in Salzburg, her studies with Francisco Araiza, Julie Kaufmann, and Angelika Kirchschlager were of particular importance for her further development.

Roman Lyulkin
The bassist was born in 1988, finishing the Moscow International Film School in 2006 and the Moscow Art Theatre School (under Igor Zolotovitsky) in 2010. Since 2012 he is a soloist of the Academy of Young Singers of the Mariinsky Theatre. He participated in masterclasses by Konstantin Pluzhnikov, Elena Obraztsova and Giuseppe Sabbatini. He is the winner of the 9th Elena Obraztsova International Competition of Young Opera Singers (2013), of the Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition of Young Opera Singers in 2015, and of the International Singing Competition “Giulio Neri” in 2019, among others. His professional experiences include performing at the Mariinsky Theater, also touring with the ensemble in several cities of Europe, at festivals like the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Puccini World Festival and the New Generation Festival in Florence and at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova.

Vahan Mardirossian
was born in Armenia and graduated with distinction from the Paris Conservatory in 1996. He enjoys a flourishing career as both conductor and piano soloist. For many years he was the Principal Conductor of the Caen Symphony Orchestra in France and Music Director of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia (NCOA). Starting from the 2019/2020 season he is the chief conductor of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong.

Vahan Mardirossian is invited regularly as a guest conductor in Europe and Asia. His past engagements include concerts with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of the Pays de la Loire, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Chamber Soloists, the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, the “Amalgam” Orchestra (comprising select musicians from the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the SWR Baden-Baden Freiburg Symphony Orchestra), the Toulon Opera Orchestra, the orchestras of Douai and Cannes in France and the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. After a hugely successful debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014, he was invited to conduct the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in the 2014/2015 season. During the same season he conducted the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Real Orquestra Sinfonica de Sevilla, Philharmonie Südwestfalen and the Bulgarian National Orchestra. In 2017 he performed a piano recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall, led the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine on a tour of Japan performing Dvorak’s Symphony No.9 and returned to conduct the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at the Suntory Hall. From 2016 to 2018 he gave his conducting debuts with the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Colonne, the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra and the Luxembourg Chamber Orchestra. In 2018 he conducted City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong at the Le French May Arts Festival and toured with the orchestra giving several concerts at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival.

His guest engagements for the coming 2019/2020 season include concerts with the New Japan Philharmonic, Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie. He will also conduct the Philharmonie Südwestfalen and the Verdi Concert Choir Japanin Verdi’s Requiem at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and record a CD with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Vahan Mardirossian has had the privilege of collaborating with many internationally renowned soloists including Ivry Gitlis, Augustin Dumay, Lars Vogt, Richard Galliano, Sergei Babayan, Andreas Frölich, Giovanni Sollima, Alexander Hülshoff, Daishin Kashimoto, Teiko Maehashi, Boris Brovtzyn, Boris Andrianov, Alexander Markov, Pavel Vernikov, Vladimir Sverdlov-Ashkenazy, Diemut Poppen, Svetlin Roussev, Brigitte Engerer, Xavier Phillips,Kun Woo Paik, Viktoria Postnikova, Sergei Nakaryakov, Gary Hoffman, Alexander Chaushian, Alexandra Soumm, Alexander Ghindin, Igor Tchetuev, Jacques Rouvier, Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabedian, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Marc Coppey, Nicolas Dautricourt, Stéphane Bechy, Guy Touvron, Roland Daugareil and André Cazalet.

His CDs include a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Stéphanie-Marie Degand and the Caen Symphony Orchestra and a recording of Music for Strings by Florentine Mulsant with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia.

Known internationally as a piano soloist, Vahan Mardirossian is often featured playing the concertos of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg or Shostakovich while simultaneously conducting the orchestra from the keyboard. As piano soloist he has performed under the direction of Maestros including Kurt Masur, Paavo Järvi, Yutaka Sado, John Axelrod and Yuri Ahronovitch.

Booklet for Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14