Francesco Andolfi studied violin under the guidance of Maestro Giovanni Leone and graduated from the San Pietro a Majella Music Conservatory in Naples in 1986. Immediately after the diploma of conservatory (December 1986) from DAMS of Bologna, he won the competition for violin in the orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. At the same time, he performed in various formations of chamber music of the San Carlo Theater in several Italian cities. In December 2004, Mr. Andolfi was appointed Assistant to the Orchestra’s Stable Direction under the superintendence of Professor Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, and of Maestro Gary Bertini. From January 2005, he suspended his activities as a violinist to devote himself entirely to the new job, first with the Music Director Gary Bertini and, later, with Jeffrey Tate, leading to receiving a note of merit signed in July 2006. He continued his career actively with guest conductors such as Riccardo Muti and Maurizio Benini, among others. In November 2008, he was appointed Artistic Secretary by Determina Commissariale, and carried out the new tasks under the guidance of the Artistic Direction of the Masters Cesare Mazzonis, and Gianni Tangucci. In August 2009, he received a new note of merit, signed by the Extraordinary Commissioner, for the commitment and skills shown in the task conferred. In 2010, Mr.Andolfi began collaborating with the new Art Director, Sergio Segalini. Since January 2011, after Segalini has left the Teatro di San Carlo – and until the appointment of the new Artistic Director, Vincenzo De Vivo, in December 2013 – he has edited the artistic programming and held the role of Casting Manager, as well as taking care of the coordination of all the activities related to the artistic sectors such as orchestra, choir, dance and teachers collaborators. In November 2011, he was invited to participate in the selection of the person in charge of Music services, and in the implementation of the Annual activity program organized by the Teatro alla Scala of Milan. This appropriately resulted in appointment of advisory committee from the Superintendent Stéphane Lissner from 27 February 2012. After about six months, however, he decided to return to the Teatro di San Carlo where, from January 2013, to hold the position of Director of the Programming Artistic, in addition to the position of Artistic Secretary.

Born in Seoul, Sang Ho Choi graduated from Yonsei University in Seoul and the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in Germany. He began his opera career on the stages of Frankfurt, Kassel, and Leipzig. Extraordinarily versatile, he has an extensive repertoire encompassing more than 45 roles, ranging from Mozart’s Tamino, Ferrando and Belmonte to the tenor roles in Donizetti’s Nemorino, Edgardo, Franz Lehar’s Prinz Sou-Chong, and Verdi’s Alfredo and Tchaikovsky’s “Eugen Onegin- Lensky,” among many others. Mr. Choi has also earned a reputation for his effort to help young singers cultivate their skills, including teaching master classes at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin (Hans Eisler,) and serving on the juries of numerous international music competitions. He is currently a professor at the Korea National University of Arts.

David Gowland studied at the Royal College of Music, where he won several prizes for piano accompaniment, and at the National Opera Studio. He joined the Glyndebourne music staff in 1987, won the 1988 Jani Strasser Award, and worked there for 20 years. He was Head of Music Staff at the Grand Théâtre de Genève 1989-96, assisting conductors such as Tate, Patané, Jordan, Bartoletti, Thielemann, Plasson, Elder, de Waart, Bertini and Campanella. He has worked as assistant conductor/senior coach with companies including Opéra National de Paris, Dutch National Opera, Royal Danish Opera, Opera di Roma, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Théâtre Capitole de Toulouse, Teatro Real di Madrid and the Festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Chorégies de Orange, Salzburg and Wexford. He was senior coach on ‘The Ring’ under Jeffrey Tate in Australia. He has conducted ‘Die Dreigroschenoper’ for RADA. Concert work has included the Edinburgh and Aldeburgh Festivals and the BBC Proms. He is a visiting tutor at the National Opera Studio, British Youth Opera, Scottish Opera Emerging Artists, New National Theatre Tokyo and all the major British conservatoires. He is a regular jury member for national and international competitions and has given masterclasses in Holland, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey. He has been associated with the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House since its inception in 2000, initially as Director of Musical Preparation and from 2006 as Artistic Director. Recent collaborations on the concert platform include Nelly Miricioiu at St John’s Smith Square, Eri Nakamura in Tokyo and Osaka and Dušica Bijelić and Haoyin Xue in Nanjing and Beijing.

Dr. Germinal Hilbert studied law in Germany and after being promoted as a doctor in law he continued to study at the International Business Management School in Fontainebleau. At the same time, he worked as an assistant at the French governmental radio ORTF. Meeting many artists, he decided to open his first agency “Opéra et Concert” in Paris with glorious names like Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek and Karl Böhm. Later on Jessye Norman, Margaret Price, Grace Bumbry and many others joined his roster. Several years later he opened “Hilbert Artists Management” in Munich. Both companies expanded their activities all over the world. The aims of both agencies are uncompromising quality as a first top priority. The agents act for first class artists who they assist in attaining engagements with the most renewed national and international opera houses and promoters and provide professional help for the artists in building up and developing their careers. Their artists themselves – both as interpreters and as individuals – are therefore the focus of the attention of both agencies.

Tenor Wookyung Kim studied at the Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea and also got a graduate degree from Musik Hochschule in Munich, Germany. He won many prestigious international competitions and was recognized for his abilities. He was the first Korean who won first place at the Placido Domingo international competition. He also won the first place at the Mirjam Helin international singing competition, the Vienna Belvedere competition, both first place and audience prize at the Francisco Vinãs singing competition. He has sung under the baton of many renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Myungwhun Chung, Kent Nagano, Fabio Luisi, Daniele Gatti, Peter Schneider, and Simone Young. He performed as a main character in Opera ‘La Bohème’, ‘Rigoletto’, ‘La Traviata’, ‘Faust’, ‘Der Rosenkavalier’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘Der fliegende Holländer’, ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’, and ‘Die Zauberflöte’ at many prestigious theaters such as Metropolitan Opera House in New York, La Scala Theatre in Milan, Covent Garden Royal Opera House in London, Munich National Theater, Semper Opera House in Dresden, Hamburg National Theater, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Staatsoper in Berlin, Tokyo New National Theatre, and Opera Theater of Florence. He also has been building his career as an Oratorio Soloist. He has performed various oratorios such as ‘Die Schöpfung’, ‘Elijah’, ‘Messiah’, ‘Paulus’, ‘Messa di Requiem’, ‘Stabat Mater’, Dvořák and Rossini. Notably, he appeared in ‘Messa di Requiem’ by Verdi, which was the last performance of Lorin Maazel before he passed away. The performance had also released in a memorial album. Those are the performances he will perform in 2019 ‘Der fliegende Holländer’, ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’, ‘La Bohème’ at Munich National Theater. Also in 2020, he will return to the Hamburg National Theater with ‘Carmen’ and others. Since 2012, he teaches at his alma mater, Hanyang University, College of Music in Seoul, South Korea.

Yasuhiro Miura, born in Kagoshima, Japan, graduated from Kunitachi College of Music where he majored in vocal music. He then completed the graduate school program of the University of Maryland. After working actively as a tenor singer, he changed his career to an opera director in 2002. His debut work as the new career was ‘Serse’ of the New National Theatre Tokyo and it attracted a great deal of attention for its innovative work. His representative works are the following; ‘Fidelio’ at the 50th anniversary of Nissay Theatre, ‘Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher’ of New Japan Philharmonic which won the incentive award by Mitsubishi Trust and Banking, ‘Cardillac’(Japan premiere) of the opera studio at the New National Theater Tokyo, ‘Parsifal and Magic holy grail’ (remade from ‘Parsifal’) of the kids opera program at the New National Theatre Tokyo, ‘Das Rheingold in Biwako Hall, ‘Francesca da Rimini’(Japan premiere) of Japan Metropolitan Opera, ‘Kesa and Morito’ of the Japan Opera Foundation, ‘Bamboo Princess’ by Ryusuke Numajiri at Hanoi Opera House, and ‘Iris’ of Shizuoka Prefectural Residents’ Opera. Miura was a chief director of the New National Theatre Tokyo and a chief lecturer of the opera studio at the New National Theatre Tokyo. He is currently a councilor of Tokyo Metropolitan Opera Foundation, a lecturer of the postgraduate course of Toho Gakuen School of Music, a lecturer of the Japan Opera Foundation, a member of Fujiwara Opera, and a member of Japan Federation of Musicians. Miura was a member of the Jury of the 8th Mt. Fuji International Opera Competition of Shizuoka, Japan.

Edda Moser was born and educated in Berlin, Germany. Her first appearances were at Bielefeld, Würzburg, Hannover and she cooperated with Hans-Werner Henze. She had appeared in many opera performances at renowned opera houses worldwide and performed with numerous conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Karl Richter, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Riccardo Muti, Leonard Bernstein, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kent Nagano etc. She had recitals over the world with Erik Werba, Ivan Törzs. She received Grand Prix du Disque for her role, Queen of the Night, at ‘Die Zauberflöte’ from Mozart, which is also on the recording-tape of the ‘Voyager II.’ This recording was sent to space, which will survive over one billion years at the orbit. In the film ‘Don Giovanni’ directed by Josef Losey, Edda Moser presents the role of Donna Anna. Edda Moser’s biography <Ersungenes Glück> is published at Henschel-Verlag Leipzig. She currently directs several Masterclasses from Salzburg to Bayreuth, Montepulciano, Spoleto etc.

Andreas Schmidt was born 1960 in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he began his studies with piano, organ and conducting. His teachers were Ingeborg Reichelt in Düsseldorf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin. After he had won the ‘Deutscher Musikwettbewerb’ in 1983, he immediately started his operatic career at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Since then he has sung numerous roles in Berlin, in the Deutsche Oper as well as in the Staatsoper, for example, Guglielmo ‘Cosi fan tutte’, Almaviva ‘Le nozze di Figaro’, Valentin ‘Faust’, Posa ‘Don Carlo,’ and many others. He also appeared in world premiere performances by Henze, Rihm and Ruzicka. Andreas Schmidt sings in opera houses such as the Staatsoper Hamburg, Dresden, Munich and Vienna, the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, the Grand Theatre de Geneve, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, the Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Grand Opera and the Bastille Paris, the Teatro alla Scala Milano, and the Metropolitan Opera New York. Concert and Recital tours lead him to the musical centers of the world, where he appeared with nearly all of the important orchestras under conductors like Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Bernstein, Eschenbach, Haitink, Muti, Ozawa and many others. Along with his work as opera and concert singer, he is also well known in the field of the German “Lied”. Although he mainly worked with the Pianist Rudolf Jansen for many years, he has also continuously sung with other partners such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Elena Bashkirova, Daniel Barenboim, Jörg Demus, Helmut Deutsch, Hartmut Höll, Burkhard Kehring, Geoffrey Parsons and Roger Vignoles. Numerous recordings for radio and TV show the breadth of his repertoire from Bachto Rihm as well as more than 130 CD productions for labels like DGG, BMG, Philips, Decca, Teldec, Sony, EMI, CPO, Hänssler and others, many of them were awarded national and international prices. Andreas Schmidt is a regular guest in festivals like Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, the Berliner Festwochen, the Wiener Festwochen and the Bayreuther Festspiele, where he sang Amfortas in five consecutive years as well as Beckmesser for seven years. Andreas Schmidt is a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg and an honorary member of the Richard-Wagner-Verband Düsseldorf. In 1997 the Senate of the City of Hamburg appointed him “Kammersänger”. From 2008 he taught as a Professor at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden, and in 2010, he changed to the University of Music and Performing Arts, München.

Professor Gerd Uecker, born in Munich, worked as Opera Director at the Bavarian State Opera from 1993 until 2000, after other executive positions at this opera house. From 2003 until 2010, he managed the Semperoper Dresden as General Director. Numerous teaching professions led him to Venice(Fondazione Levi), Peking, Stuttgart(Academy of Music and Theatre), Munich (Academy of Music and Theatre, Bavarian Academy of Theatre August Everding), Dresden(Academy of Music Carl Maria von Weber, Dresden International University,) and Berlin(University of Arts). Originally trained as a conductor, Professor Uecker is considered as profound opera specialist with widespread experience in musical education and profession. Within his teaching, he is dedicated to promoting young singers in master classes at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the European Academy Montepulciano, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the University of Arts Berlin, as well as in Dresden, Nuremberg, Graz, Istanbul and in Japan. Due to his rich experience, he was elected as Chairman of the German Opera Conference in 2005 until 2010. Additionally, we became Chairman of the board of the academy at the Academy of Music Lübeck in 2007. In 2010, he was awarded the Danish Knight’s Cross of the order of Danneborg, and in 2011, he became honorary president of the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin. Professor Uecker has authored several publications including <Dream job opera singer>, and <Operas of Puccini>.