2007, Winner of the Renate Holm Prize & the Emmerich Kálmán Prize
2008, Recipient of the Gottlob-Frick Award
The soprano Lisa Tjalve was born in Copenhagen in 1974. The Danish conductor Tage Mortensen discovered her singing talent at an early age. During the years 1985-91 she performed as a soloist under his conductorship in numerous concerts, television recordings and CD-productions with Radio Denmark. Lisa Tjalve studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln with the Professors Kms. Hans Sotin and Klesie Kelly-Moog and graduated with distinction as a diploma opera singer in 2000. In May 2003 she made her début from the Soloist Class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Professor Kirsten Buhl-Moeller. The next day The Danish newspaper Politiken described Lisa Tjalve as a singer with remarkable scenic presence, fine soprano nuances, brilliant coloraturas and a promising lyric-dramatic coloratura potential. Masterclasses have been attended with Ingrid Bjoner, Tom Krause, Diane Montaque & Edda Moser. Other persons who have been important to Lisa Tjalve’s continued technical and musical development are the Bel Canto experts Felix Rolke, Neil Semer and Brigitta Seidler-Winkler.
Lisa Tjalve’s professional début was at the Theatre of Pforzheim, Teatro Vipiteno and The Hebbel-Theatre with Die Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin. She started with baroque roles such as Calisto from La Calisto by Cavalli and Iphise from Dardanus by Rameau, which was performed at the first “Kölner Rameau-festival” under the baton of Konrad Junghänel, but she could also be heard as Maria in the musical, West Side Story. Later on she took part in the original performance of the Sphärenmusic by Marcus Stockhausen in collaboration with the Neue Rheinische Kammerorchester Köln. The performance was recorded live. With the same orchestra The Creation of Haydn was recorded.
From August 2001 until August 2003 she has been a member of the soloist ensemble of the Theatre Lübeck. Her operatic roles included Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Sophie in The Rosenkavalier. About her début as Sophie the Kieler Nachrichten wrote about Special star moments with soprano Lisa Tjalve. In operetta roles she appeared as Valancienne in The Merry Widow and Lisa in Countess Mariza. Her Lübeck repertoire also included exposed lyric/dramatic coloratura roles such as Agnes in Die Schule der Frauen by Rolf Liebermann and Zémire in Zémire & Azor by E.M. Grétry. The leading German reviewer Jürgen Kesting, Frankfurter Allgemeine, wrote: with her coloraturas and fine dynamic nuances and appearance Lisa Tjalve made Zémire a real “belle”. In the Autumn 2003 Lisa Tjalve chose to leave the ensemble with Theater Lübeck. However, she remained attached to the theatre as a guest, where she was heard again in her most praised role as Sophie in The Rosenkavalier.
As a free lance singer Lisa Tjalve concerted with favourite works such as Carmina Burana by Orff, Stabat Mater by Pergolesi & Exultate Jubilate by Mozart, which she performed at the annual Xmas Concert of the Danish Parliament 2001 in Holmes church, Copenhagen. She sang in operetta- and opera- performances at the Philharmonic Concert Hall, Cologne, Beethovenhalle, Bonn, The Crown Hall, Jerusalem, Musik & Kongresshalle Lübeck, The Concert Hall of Radio Denmark and at the Salzburg Easter Festival. In this connection she worked under the baton of conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Marcus Creed, Helmuth Froschauer, Roman Brogli-Sacher and Uri Segal. Furthermore with instructors as Peter Stein, Michael Hampe and Anthony Pilavachy and with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmonic, The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestra of Komische Oper Berlin, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, The Radio Denmark Symphony Orchestra together with the Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra.
In Spring 2005 Lisa Tjalve was seen at Den Fynske Opera in Denmark where she interpreted the principal role as Cecillie in the Opera Hosekræmmeren by the Danish composer Svend S. Schulz. The famous opera singer Ulrik Cold wrote in the Danish newspaper Boersen: Lisa Tjalve possesses voice, appearances, technique and eagerness to play in grand style, a singer at a sky-high artistic level. Hereafter followed the role as Calisto in the revived opera Giove in Argo by Händel at the Markgräfliche opera in Bayreuth on the occasion of the Bayreuther Barock 2006 festival. Short after Giove in Argo was released in a firstrecording by Cantate Musicaphon Records with the orchestra Concert Royal. During the season 2006/2007 she sang the title role in the opera Pinocchio by Pierangelo Valtinoni as a guest at the Komische Oper Berlin.
Lisa Tjalve has performed more than 20 different roles on stage, mostly leading roles. She is a versatile artist with a voice type of a lyric/dram. coloratura soprano. Lisa Tjalve loves the challenges in complicated opera figures and aims to make the singing and playing form a synthesis. 2007 her new solo-album Lisa Tjalve, Lyric & Coloratura Arias Live, with Piano, was released by Bross-Art & Danacord Records reflecting her warm expressive timbre.
The soprano has been awarded first prize by the German “Renate Holm Operettenpreis” at the international Paul-Lincke Song Competition 2007 in connection with the “Elblandfestspiele Wittenberge” in Germany. Patrons for the Festival are HRH Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Prince of Preusia, The Prime Minister of Brandenburg Matthias Platzeck and the world famous Court Singer Renate Holm. She also received the Emmerich Kálmán prize at the Festival’s annual gala concert which was transmitted on german RBB TV. Finally Lisa Tjalve is a semi-finalist out of 205 singers in the Strasbourg Festival international opera competition “D´Art Lyrique” 2007 led by Barbara Hendricks as chairman.
2008 the Soprano can be heard as Musette in la Boheme with Musik Dramatisk Teater in Denmark. In the fall Kms. Renate Holm has personally invited her to sing concerts together, with the Heilbronn Symphony orchestra organized of The Gottlob Frick Gesellchaft Germany www.Gottlob-Frick-Gesellchaft.de. At the end of the year the soprano is once again invited to sing the yearly gala concerts at Alte Oper Erfurt.
