NORMANDY
VOCAL SUMMER SCHOOL

Joining the stage from the far corners and back trails of her native South Africa, mezzo-soprano Samantha Malk is an artist devoted to the love of her craft.

 

She is overjoyed to find a summer resting place in France working alongside pianist Florent Mourier, celebrating the heart and soul of the people and landscape of this beautiful part of the world while mentoring young aspiring singers.

 

Samantha began carving out her career by focusing on recital, concert, chamber and newly composed repertoire. In the operatic arena, Samantha has portrayed roles such as Dorabella, Cherubino, Dido, Carmen and Komponist, to name a few.
 

She is an alumna of Tanglewood Music Center, Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Music
Festival, Academie Musicale de Villecroze and the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme at
Aldeburgh Music Festival. Samantha holds degrees in vocal performance from both Manhattan School of Music and Indiana University.

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Samantha has been a voice consultant for the Young Artist Program at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv since 2011 and in 2014, Samantha joined the voice faculty of the International Vocal Arts Institute/Summer Opera Tel Aviv in Israel.
 

Samantha currently lives and works in London, England where she is the Deputy Head of Vocal Studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She maintains a private voice studio andguest teaches in host cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Bogota, Johannesburg and New York.

 

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Franco-British pianist Florent Mourier is based in London. He is specialised in vocal repertoire (art song and opera) and is highly sought after as a recitalist and a vocal coach. Florent is passionate about music making, drama, pedagogy, communication and the human voice. His key words are honesty, passion and flexibility.

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Florent has played at the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Hall, Milton Court, St John’s Smith Square in London, the Holywell Music Room at the Oxford Lieder Festival, Festival d’Aix and Fondation Royaumont in France, Brussel’s La Monnaie, Utrecht’s Tivoli Vredenburg and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in the Netherlands.

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Florent was a semi-finalist of Das Lied International Song Competition in Heidelberg, Germany along with mezzo-soprano Grace Durham. Florent was official pianist of the 2022 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition in Dublin.

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Highlights of the 2022/23 season include launching a video recording service for singers in London, acting as music director for the postgraduate opera scenes at the Guildhall School, playing for Handel's Arminio at the Royal Opera House, performing recitals for Opera Rara with tenor Loic Felix and returning to the Classix Festival in Romania.

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Florent graduated from the                         Conservatorium van Amsterdam, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio in London. He is an ENOA Young Artist, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, a laureate of the Fondation Royaumont and a member of the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

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Florent works as a freelance pianist and accompanist, as well as staff pianist, vocal and language coach at the Guildhall School of Music and the National Opera Studio in London.

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Japanese-born pianist Satoshi Kubo began his initial training in Oita, Japan. He is a distinguished graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, studying with Itamar Golan, Jeff Cohen and Roger Muraro. He also discovered a passion for chamber music at the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, where he worked as official class accompanist of its International Academy for several years.
 

Now based in London, Kubo works as a freelance pianist and opera répétiteur. He
was a 2017-18 Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London, generously
supported by the Nomura Foundation during that time. He regularly collaborates with
singers and works internationally for major and independent opera companies,
including the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Royal Opera House, The Opera
Story, and New Sussex Opera.

 

Since 2018, he has worked as coach for the Jette
Parker Young Artists Programme, Royal Opera House. His most recent work is researching the Takuboku songbook composed by Yasuji Kiyose, and the use of the Japanese language in art song performance.

Lise is a movement artist based in Normandy. She trained as a dancer for many years studying jazz dance, ballet, dancehall and contemporary; and is now specialised in art therapy after graduating from Paris’s Institut National d’Expression, Creation, d’Art et Therapie.

 

In her sessions, she uses a mix of different methods including Qigong, Yoga, Contact Improvisation, Feldenkrais, 5Rhythms and Authentic Movement therapy.

 

She strongly believes that movement can lead to self exploration and improve mental health.

 

Lise is looking forward to working with singers on connecting movement and breath, whilst trusting their intuition and discovering new ways of expression.

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