Sofia Gubaidulina: Fairytale Poem
Richard Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder
Alexander Scriabin: Symphony No. 2
Andris Poga, conductor
Aga Mikolaj, soprano
Andris Poga is the Chief Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. He was the Music Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2013 till 2021 and continues to collaborate with the LNSO as its Artistic Advisor.
Highlights of recent years have included concerts with the leading orchestras of Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Scandinavia. After the first successful collaborations he has become a regular guest at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg, WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and many others. He has also conducted the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Gewandhausorchester, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Dallas Symphony.
The season of 2024/25 includes the subscription concert series with both the SSO and LNSO, returns to the Orchestre National de France, WDR Sinfonieorchester, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Hamburg Symphoniker among others. Andris will make his debuts with the Iceland Symphony, Turku Philharmonic, Düsseldorf Symphony and other orchestras in Europe and Japan. The notable soloists will include instrumentalists Frank Peter Zimmermann, David Fray, Jan Lisiecki, Jean-Guihen Queyras and singers Julia Bullock, Miina-Liisa Värelä, Alfred Walker.
In 2010, Andris Poga was the First Prize winner of the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition, which thrust him into the international scene. He became an assistant to Paavo Järvi at the Orchestre de Paris and he also served as the assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Andris has graduated the conducting department of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. He studied philosophy at the University of Latvia and conducting at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts.
A pupil of the late Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, AGA MIKOLAJ’s core repertoire focuses on the leading Mozart ladies – Countess, Pamina, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira – which she coached with her teacher, particularly hailed for those roles. Equally at ease with the key lyric soprano roles and Richard Strauss’ in particular, the artist is frequently praised for her silvery vocal quality and seamless legato line.
Between 2002 and 2007, Aga Mikolaj was a member of Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper where she now continues to perform regularly as a guest. She has also worked in several other important theatres such as Opéra National de Paris, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper unter den Linden and the Glyndebourne Festival.
Miss Mikolaj has worked with many important conductors including Zubin Mehta, Ivor Bolton, Adam Fischer, Kent Nagano and Philippe Jordan. Under Daniel Barenboim she made her Teatro alla Scala debut as Woglinde (Das Rheingold), with Gustavo Dudamel she made her Berlin Staatsoper unter den Linden debut as Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and performed for the first time with the Wiener Staatsoper under Seiji Ozawa as Donna Elvira on a tour of Japan.
A frequent concert performer, Aga Mikolaj has a diverse repertoire featuring works by composers such as Mahler, Beethoven, Schubert, Richard Strauss, Penderecki and Szymanovski and has most recently appeared with the Halle Orchestra, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, the Rundfunk Synfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Marek Janowski and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Antoni Wit.
In the current season Aga Mikolaj debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel as Donna Elvira, returns to Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper as Freia in a new production of Das Rheingold conducted by Kent Nagano and makes her role debut as Donna Anna at the New National Theatre in Tokyo with Enrique Mazzola. In addition to further performances as Micaëla (Carmen) in Munich, Aga Mikolaj returns to Berlin to sing Das Rheingold with Daniel Barenboim and further broadens her concert repertoire with Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.
