Noga Quartet
Playing string quartet is a matter of the heart for all four members of the Noga Quartet. Avishai Chameides dreamed of playing viola in a string quartet ever since he was a child, but only after his musical career had taken him from conservatory in Givatayim and Tel Aviv to Milan and Berlin did he finally meet the three French musicians Simon Roturier, Lauriane Vernhes, and Joan Bachs, with whom he founded the ensemble ten years ago.

The Noga Quartet has won an impressive number of prizes: Premio Borciani in 2014, the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2010 and 2013, the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2011, and First Prize at the renowned Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2015. Those successes are now the Noga Quartet’s worldwide calling card. The ensemble is regularly invited to perform in major concert halls and festivals in Germany, Austria, Italy, the Benelux countries, France, Scandinavia, and Canada. The members of the Noga Quartet are regularly present on the Berlin concert scene – also as members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. The quartet’s approach – to develop a work from inside out in all of its details, and to immerse and abandon oneself to the music – leads to highly unique, finely explored interpretations, and that takes time.

Yet the ensemble already masters an impressive variety of repertoire, ranging from Beethoven to Bartók, from Ligeti to Adès. They trained as a quartet with members of the Alban Berg and Artemis Quartets, and they have attended a great number of courses imparted by masters of the string instrument craft.

Siobhan Stagg
is one of the most outstanding young artists to emerge from Australia in recent years. Christa Ludwig has described Siobhan’s voice as “one of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard.”

A graduate of the University of Melbourne, Siobhan began her career as a Young Artist at the Salzburg Festival (2013) and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (2013 – 2015). As word of her talent spread, Siobhan was quickly engaged for important debuts at the Hamburg State Opera, Berliner Philharmoniker, Bayerische Staatsoper, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Dutch National Opera (Amsterdam), BBC Proms and London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, among others.

Siobhan Stagg as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, September 2017. Photo © Tristram Kenton. Siobhan’s mainstage Covent Garden debut as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at London’s Royal Opera House was highly praised: “Best of all was Siobhan Stagg”…”a glorious performance” … “The young Australian is the next big thing.”

Earlier this year, Siobhan earned accolades for a “terrific U.S. debut” in the title role of Massenet’s Cendrillon (Cinderella) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, critics praising her “absolutely stunning and powerful voice, coupled with her undeniably magnetic stage presence.”

The same season, Siobhan made a “triumphant” Australian operatic debut as Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande for Victorian Opera, winning her the 2019 Green Room Award for Best Female Lead in an Opera. “It’s not often a soprano comes along with the ability to sing with both thrilling frisson and total tranquility … Siobhan Stagg’s Mélisande was transcendent.”

After six years as a principal soloist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Siobhan returns in 2019/20 as a guest, singing Tytania in the Berlin premiere of Ted Huffman’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten. In 2019, Siobhan is Artist in Association with Asher Fisch and te West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth. Other highlights include Mélisande at the Opera de Dijon, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at Opernhaus Zürich with Fabio Luisi, a return to the Salzburg Festival for Mozart Matinees and a debut at Festival Aix-en-Provence in Romeo Castellucci’s euphoric staging of Mozart’s Requiem (streamed on Arte.)

NEWS 2019/20: Siobhan is featured on two brand new albums: Libertá with Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon for Harmonia Mundi International, and Aquarelles (Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliées) with the Noga Quartet.