Eytan Pessen

Eytan Pessen (born 30 August 1961 in Haifa, Israel) is a pianist and voice teacher, currently at the Opera houses of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Vienna (Volksoper), Zürich and international festivals.

He was former opera director of the Semperoper in Dresden, artistic advisor to Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and former casting director of the Staatstheater Stuttgart.

Born in Haifa, Israel, to parents of German heritage, he studied Piano (with Dr. Nilly Shilo, Walter Aufhauser, Irina Zaritskaya and Dina Turgeman), composition (with Andre Hajdu and Daniel V. Oppenheim), and musicology at the Tel-Aviv University Rubin Academy, with a Bachelor of Music, summa cum Laude, in 1983, and a Masters of Music, magna cum laude, in 1984.

Further Piano studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Vladimir Sokoloff, (voice studies at Curtis with Robert Grooters), and at the Juilliard School in New York with Marshal Williamson, Margo Garrett and Alberta Masiello.

In New York he worked as pianist and coach for the Metropolitan Opera young artist's programme.

As head of music staff and the casting director at the Stuttgart Opera in Germany, he worked under the German Dramaturge-Intendant Klaus Zehelein and Co-Intendant Pamela Rosenberg.

When she left for San Francisco in 2001, he became casting director.

In Stuttgart, Pessen launched the international carriers of conductors Constantinos Carydis, Nicola Luisotti, Carlo Montanaro and Robin Ticciati.

Singers Lucas Meachem and Eva-Maria Westbroek began their international careers during his Stuttgart tenure as well.

Other guest artists were Brandon Jovanovich, Catherine Naglestad and Jonas Kaufmann, who explored Italian repertoire as Barbiere-Almaviva, Rodolfo and Alfredo.

In Stuttgart Pessen promoted a series of unknown baroque and classic works, and conceived the chamber music series for the orchestra at the Mozart-Saal, which is still running today.

Under Zehelein's leadership the Stuttgart Opera won the Opera house of the year award of European critics six times during the fifteen years.

Eytan Pessen now teaches voice and piano; since 2007 at the Frankfurt Opera, since 2014 at the IOS in Zürich, since 2018 at the Dutch national opera since 2020 at the Hamburg State Opera, and since 2022 at the Volksoper Wien.Vienna (Volksoper),

He often gives masterclasses for singers, pianists and accompanists at the Les Azuriales festival, Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, the Scuola d’Opera in Bologna Duszniki Zdroj, Oberlin in Italy, San Francisco Opera, North Carolina School of Arts, Kyoto University of the Arts, Kaunas Music Academy, New Israeli Opera, Vinterakademi Voksenåsen (Oslo), the Mikhailovsky theatre in Saint Petersburg Festival FAOT in Sonora, Mexico,

Eytan Pessen was artistic advisor to the RUHR.2010 cultural festival under music director Steven Sloane.

An intense collaboration ensued with the composer Hans Werner Henze, 2010 became a year-long Hans Werner Henze project, which spanned many cities, opera and ballet companies as well as symphony orchestras and chamber music groups.

Henze wrote his last opera, Gisela! For the RUHR.2010 (an opera for and about youth, premiered at the RuhrTriennale).

As opera director of the Semperoper, he invited the composer Hans Werner Henze and the director Stefan Herheim to return each season for different projects.

He chose to collaborate with a young generation of directors including Bettina Bruinier, Jan Phillip Gloger, Florentine Klepper, Axel Köhler, Michael Schulz, Elisabeth Stöppler and Manfred Weiss.

Interested in the artistic benefits of a stable musical ensemble working together over a long period, he chose to extend the Ensemble and the young ensemble (the Dresden opera's studio programme) rather than invest in established guests.

Artists such as Scott Connor, Emily Dorn, Vanessa Goikoexea, Evan Hughes, Christopher Magiera, Amanda Majeski, Marjorie Owens, Tichina Vaughn, Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Sebastian Wartig belonged to the permanent ensemble.

Conductors that made their debut in Dresden include Josep Caballé Domenech, Julia Jones (conductor), Nicola Luisotti, Michele Mariotti, Carlo Montanaro, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Henrik Nánási, Daniel Oren and Omer Meir Wellber.

Pessen widened the repertory span to include commissions from de:Miroslav Srnka and Lucia Ronchetti, as well as Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus, Jaromir Weinberger’s Svanda Dudák, (Schwanda the Bagpiper), Kurt Weill’s Street Scene (opera), Hans Werner Henze's Gisela! and We Come to the River.

For this performance the famous theatre interior (by the architect Gottfried Semper) was completely rebuilt with three vast set parts (designed by Rebecca Ringst and Anette Hunger) jutting into the audience space and reaching up toward the balcony.

The year 2011 he was artistic advisor for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and from December 2012 to 2014, was advisor to Teatro Massimo in Palermo, where he programmed Richard Strauss’ Feuersnot, Jaromír Weinberger's Schwanda the Bagpiper and Hans Werner Henze's Gisela!.

Poems

Essays(selection)

Yiddish

Folk

Notes

For the Wagner year 2013 he conceived a mini-festival that explored Richard Wagner's development years in Dresden, combining Wagner's The Flying Dutchman with Gaspare Spontini's La Vestale and Halevy's La Juive.

Opening up the Semperoper to the general public, he often wrote essays and editorials; in one case counting the calories burnt going to different operas, or imagining a conversation with the Gargoyles decorating the new building of the Semperoper.

For the programme notes of Alcina he wrote a poem describing the first performance of Alcina through the eyes of a young boy.

the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, The Turku festival in Finland, and the theatres of Stuttgart, Graz and Dresden, Ópera de bellas artes in Mexico City, Fundación Ibáñez Atkinson al Teatro Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, Chile, the Theaterakademie in Munich, the Académie of the Paris national opera and from 2013-2020 at the Akademia Operowa of the Grand Theatre, Warsaw (Teatr Wielki i Opera Narodowa w Warszawie), as well as numerous workshops for ENOA.

Pessen performs in recitals and concerts with Giorgio Berrugi, Justina Bluj, Emily Dorn, Gala El Hadidi, Andrzej Filończyk, Armelle Arménouhi Khourdoïan, Pawel Konik, Maciej Kwaśnikowski, Keith Lewis, Angela Liebold, Amanda Majeski, Markus Marquardt, Danylo Matviienko, Christa Mayer, Paula Murrihy, Marjorie Owens, Michał Partyka, Christoph Pohl, Matthias Rexroth, Katharina Ruckgaber, Iurii Samoilov, Michal Shamir, Merto Sungu, Mikołaj Trąbka, Tichina Vaughn, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Jan Żądło.

With Motti Kastón and Helene Schneiderman he produced a CD of songs in Jiddish and Ladino.

Recent appearances include the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Rheingau Musikfestival, Bochum Symphony, and the theatres of Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Dresden, the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, the Miskolc Festival, as well as radio broadcasts NDR Hamburg, DeutschlandRadio Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonie and Stuttgart opera.

He was jury member of the Concorso Lirico Salvatore Licitra in Milan, the Stanislav Moniuszko competition in Warsaw, Antonina Campi International Voice competition in Lublin, Concorso Voci Verdiane Busseto, the Belvedere competition in Vienna, as well as the Marcello Giordani competition in Catania, the Aviv competition in Tel Aviv, El Premio de Canto Ciudad de Bogotá, The 5th International Solomiya Krushelnytska Opera Singers Competition, Concorso Internationale di Assisi, Concorso Aslico in Como and the Queen Sonja International Music Competition.

He was advisor to the Juan Pons International Competition in Palma de Mallorca.