Anouschka Lara
Anouschka Lara (soprano, Asteria in Tamerlano) studied languages, literature, dancing, and drama at the Guildford School of Acting, before gaining a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where her teachers were Laura Sarti and Annette Thompson. She graduated with first-class honours in July 2000. In 2002 she successfully completed the Advanced Opera course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where she studied with Patricia Hay and Patricia MacMahon; she was supported by the Barcapel Foundation and the Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund. While at the RSAMD she won the Lieder Prize and Ye Cronies Opera Award. Among the roles that she has performed in opera scenes are: Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro; Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni; Morgana in Handel's Alcina; Atalanta in Handel's Serse; Sophie in Massenet's Werther; Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice; Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore; and Adèle in Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus. In complete opera performances she has sung: Calisto in Cavalli's La Calisto; Poussette in Massenet's Manon; Lauretta in Pergolesi's Il maestro di musica; Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; la Blanche Aline in Honegger's Les Aventures du Roi Pausole; and Gasparina in Haydn's La Canterina. She has taken part in masterclasses with Rudolf Piernay, Sarah Walker, Elly Ameling, Michael Chance, and Dominick Argento; she was chosen by Graham Johnson to take part in his "Young Songmakers' Almanac", and by the Samling Foundation to perform in masterclasses with Thomas Allen, Paul Farrington, and Malcolm Martineau. She has performed as a soloist in the Cuenca Festival for Young Interpreters, the International Musik Festival Davos, Porta Ferrada International Festival, Cité de la Musique, and Lauenen Chamber Music Festival, and with artists such as Maria-Joao Pires, Dimitri Ashkenazy, Jeremy Menuhin, Joji Hattori, Jordi Savall, and Philippe Huttenlocher. She has given recitals and performed in oratorios in several European countries, and she gave her début recital at the Wigmore Hall in April 2003 with her accompanist, Alexis Delgado. She is a member of the ensemble Mala Punica, directed by Pedro Memelsdorff. Anouschka also teaches singing in Lausanne (Switzerland).