Project Category: Accompanist

GIULIO ZAPPA

Giulio Zappa studied with Oleg Marshev, graduating in piano with the highest distinction at the Conservatory of Novara. At the same time he graduated with honours in Foreign Languages and Literatures at the State University of Milan, with a thesis on Russian opera. He started his career as a piano accompanist in the class of Bianca Maria Casoni in
Milan, continuing with Aldo Ciccolini and Irwin Gage. Since 1996, he has performed all around the world.

Specializing in the bel canto repertoire, he has been senior vocal coach at the Rossini Opera Festival since 2002, also teaching singers and accompanists at the Scuola dell’Opera (Bologna), Accademia del Maggio Fiorentino, Accademia Verdiana (Parma), Accademia Teatro Carlo Felice (Genova), Accademia del Belcanto di Martina Franca, Teatro Real (Madrid), Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid, University of Jaén, Opera Studio of Tel Aviv, Wexford Factory, Glyndebourne, Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Bolshoi Theatre Young Artists Opera Program, and Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO).

Giulio Zappa was artistic director of the Opera (e)Studio Young Artist Programme at the Ópera de Tenerife from 2013 to 2021 and since 2022 has served as the Artistic Secretary of the festival Donizetti Opera (Bergamo) and leader of its young artist programme, Bottega Donizetti.

 

Antoine Palloc

Antoine Palloc is from Nice, where he studied with Catherine Collard and was awarded first prize in piano and chamber music. Specialising in the art of vocal accompaniment, he studied with Dalton Baldwin and Martin Katz at Westminster Choir College and the University of Michigan. He has worked with many prestigious artists including Frederica Von Stade, Norah Amsellem, David Daniels, Mireille Delunsch, François Piolino, Bruce Ford, Alastair Miles, Patrizia Biccere, Majella Cullagh, Anne-Sophie Duprels, Patricia Petibon Elizabeth Vidal, Cristina Gallardo-Domas, and Jennifer Larmore. He taught at the Paris Conservatory, and regularly gives master classes at the training centre Lyric Opera Bastille, International Summer Academy of Nice, University of Michigan, the Atelier du Rhin, Nagaoka Lyric Hall, Tokyo Opera Studio, Franz Liszt Academy (Budapest) and the Seoul Opera Studio.

David Harper

The internationally renowned accompanist and vocal coach David Harper has a long association with Opera Rara and its artists. He has helped shape the careers of many of today’s most distinguished singers and is principal accompanist on Opera Rara’s Il Salotto series. Master classes and vocal workshops dealing with style, interpretation and vocal technique, as well as guest professorships and teaching residencies throughout Europe, Japan, USA and Australasia feature largely in his current professional activities.

Jeff Cohen

Jeff Cohen (pianist) studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore with Lillian Freundlich before moving to France to study piano and chamber music at the Conservatoire National de Paris. As a pianist, Jeff has collaborated with numerous singers and instrumentalists, such as Roberto Alagna, June Anderson, Cecilia Bartoli, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Angela Gheorghiu, François Le Roux and Dame Felicity Lott, among others. He has made a number of recordings, including a live recital at La Scala with Angela Gheorghiu. He lives in Paris and is currently professor of Mélodie and Lied at the Conservatoire National. In June 2006 he was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. For Opera Rara he was the pianist on the critically acclaimed recording of Wekerlin’s La Laitière de Trianon (ORR245).