VOICE & INTERPRETATION – Prof. Karola Theill (University of Music Rostock)/Peter Sefcik

 Teachers: 

As one of the few female pianists specializing in song interpretation, Karola Theill has made her name as a performer, teacher and university lecturer.

She appears in concert throughout Germany and abroad (f.e. Musikverein Wien, Opéra de Bastille, Paris) as well as in Israel, the USA and China.

She has been the collaborate partner of singers including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Benjamin Bruns, Okka von der Damerau, Angela Denoke, Matthias Goerne, Klaus Häger, Fionnuala McCarthy, Thomas Mohr, Martina Rüping, Nadine Weissmann and others.

Karola Theill teaches at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, where she is an honorary professor, and conducts a song-interpretation class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock.

In addition she gives regular masterclasses in song interpretation in Berlin, at the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy (Germany), at the Music Academies in Poznan and Warsaw (Poland), Riga (Latvia), Castelfranco and Alessandria (Italy), Jerusalem (Israel), Los Angeles (USA) and Hang Zhou (China).

Photo: ©  Steffen Höft

After studying singing at Hannover’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Peter Sefcik launched an active concert career in Germany and abroad. From 1972 to 1977, he also undertook intensive studies in Munich with the renowned baritone Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender – the father and sole teacher of Brigitte Fassbaender – who encouraged him to make pedagogy a professional focus.

From 1970 to 2002, Sefcik worked as voice coach of the Knabenchor Hannover and, as vocal trainer of the soloists, took part in the first complete period-instrument recording of the Bach Cantatas, featuring the TÖLZER KNABENCHOR and directed by Gustav Leonhardt and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Hochschule teaching posts followed in Hannover and Essen as well as a 12-year professorship at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater. In 2006 Sefcik took up an appointment as vocal coach and soloist advisor of the Tölzer Knabenchor. Additionally, he conducts seminars and courses at conservatories in Europe and the USA.

Sefcik coaches professional singers currently engaged by leading opera companies, among them the Vienna Staatsoper (lyric tenor), Düsseldorf (character tenor), Glyndebourne Festival (lyric soprano), Geneva (dramatic soprano), Bremen (tenor) and Berlin’s Komische Oper (several singers).

Dates: 

Arrival: Monday, July 29, 2024, until 12 pm
Closing concert: Saturday, August 3rd, 2024, 6:30 pm
Departure: Sunday, August 4, 2024, until 12 pm

Contents:

For years now, Karola Theill and Peter Sefcik have been giving courses in Singing & Interpretation. In addition to imparting the foundations of technique, they share the idea of encouraging singers and pianists to heighten their emotional readiness to engage the imagination so that  texts and music can take wing when realized in performance.

Out of a profound textual understanding emerges the freedom to interpret and shape with all the colours, nuances and possibilities inherent in the sound of voice and piano.

Karola Theill and Peter Sefcik are experienced and inspiring mentors on this voyage of discovery.

• Individual teaching units with Peter Sefcik (singing) and with Karola Theill (song and oratorio)

• Joint teaching sessions with both instructors

•An evening of audio samples illustrating Peter Sefcik’s philosophy of singing

• An evening of information and discussion of the repertoire being prepared

•General rehearsal with extensive, detailed counselling

• Final concert

Accommodation:

Students are hosted on a shared room basis in a beautiful villa on the bank of the Rhine river.

Meals:

A kitchen is available for cooking; groceries can be bought in a nearby supermarket. Group shopping is advised. A different team can do the cooking daily, which can be organize in situ.

Rooms:

Committed to the spirit of romanticism, all masterclasses offered by the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy unite everything under one roof: living, learning, eating and sleeping. That is why participants will be hosted on a shared room basis.

Audition information and registration:

In order to be accepted, you must meet one of the following criteria:

(a) be recommended by Prof. Theill or Mr. Sefcik, or
(b) submit an unedited video audition (YouTube link) for review.

In addition, you must complete and submit our application form and pay a €40,- application fee.

Registration Deadline: June 29, 2023

Tuition:

Course fee (incl. accommodation):

Singers: €800,-
Pianists: €520,-