GenZ Voice Recitals: The Female Voice / Corde e canto / Songs without Shores
Splendor and Stichting VoorUit are happy to present "GenZ Voice Recitals”. This series of four double recitals plus one triple recital offers the audience a fresh look at classical music through the lens of Generation Z. Twelve talented voice students from the Conservatory of Amsterdam and their duo partners take you on a musical journey around the world.
The fifth and final stage gives us three duo’s: soprano Maria Bastos and guitarist Bárbara Macedo (Portugal) present (too) little-heard repertoire for voice and guitar, written by and for women: music by Clara Schumann, Pauline Viardot, and Barbara Strozzi. Then, mezzo-soprano Laetitia Sprij (Netherlands) and guitarist Nacho Cuadrado Espadiña (Spain) explore the sounds of Italian bel canto and Spanish lieder: music by Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Sor, and De Falla. And finally, soprano Sara Behar and jazz pianist Joy Shechter (Israel). They complement each other in their interpretations of the classical lied repertoire: Sara interprets the written vocal line, Joy takes the score as a starting point for exploration and improvisation. With music by Strozzi, Fauré, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Hebrew songs.
The Female Voice
Soprano Maria Bastos: “As two women working together, Bárbara and I want to interpret less-performed music of composers who were cast aside in their time of artistic production due to their gender, in a gathering of repertoire for voice and guitar written by and for women. We also aim to present this traditional duo in a field not so often explored, as the voice and guitar combination usually embraces repertoire by male composers.
Our program includes music by Clara Schumann, Pauline Viardot, Barbara Strozzi and more. Since we are both Portuguese, we decided to include music with the female element by Portuguese composers, so as to bring to our program a taste from our culture. Furthermore, between songs, we include the declamation of translated poems by Portuguese female poets, in relation to the music. Alongside songs written by women, we also present some compositions by male composers for women, whether in the poetry or in the music itself, such as À Chloris by Reynaldo Hahn.
With this project, we aim to share the work we’ve been doing in a project very exciting to us, and to give a new voice to great repertoire that is sometimes overlooked.”
Corde e canto — music for voice and strings
In this Mediterranean programme, guitarist Nacho Cuadrado Espadiña and mezzosoprano Laetitia Sprij explore the sounds of Italian bel canto and Spanish song. The duo brings together Spanish and Italian repertoire for voice and guitar, while creating their own arrangements of operatic scores—translating the orchestra’s textures to the intimate dialogue of guitar and voice.
Nacho, from Spain, brings the warmth and rhythm of his heritage to the stage, while also passionately adapting Italian bel canto for guitar. His mastery of both styles earned him a distinction in his master’s final exam.
Laetitia, from the Netherlands, feels completely at home in Italy. She loves singing Italian bel canto repertoire and song repertoire.
The duo first met at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague in spring 2025, performing in each other’s final exams—Nacho for his master’s, Laetitia for her bachelor’s.
In the 2025–2026 season, they continue exploring the bel canto style for voice and guitar as part of Residenze Erranti, performing in Milan and Padua, Italy.
Songs Without Shores
As a duo, soprano Sara Behar and jazz pianist Joy Shechter approach songs of the classical repertoire from complementary perspectives. Sara interprets the written vocal line, while Joy takes the score as a starting point for exploration and improvisation, closely attuned to the text and its expressive potential. This interplay creates a dialogue in which the performers spark each other’s imagination, allowing each piece to evolve from tradition into something fresh and unexpected. The result is an interpretation that honors the original intentions while opening new colors, emotions, and resonances.
The programme reflects voices that call out but do not find an answer, desires that cannot be fulfilled, and emotions suspended between expression and silence. Spanning centuries and cultures, it is unified by this theme. Strozzi’s Lagrime mie gives voice to grief, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Lyubasha reveals a passion that cannot reconcile with reality, Fauré’s En prière and Après un rêve transform longing into intimate prayer and dream, and two Hebrew songs, one celebrating the Sea of Galilee, the other telling a story of yearning and love, bring the theme into the personal and cultural realm.
In this recital, the audience is invited into a space of resonance between past and present, classical and jazz, certainty and uncertainty, where every song becomes a voice reaching out, even if it never fully arrives at its destination.
Maria Bastos - soprano
Bárbara Macedo - guitar
Laetitia Sprij - mezzo-soprano
Nacho Cuadrado Espadiña - guitar
Sara Behar - soprano
Joy Shechter - piano
The other stages of our musical world tour will take place on January 11, February 8, March 8, and April 12. Will you join us? Then purchase a discount pass for the entire "GenZ Voice Recitals" series before January 11th. You'll then attend all five concerts with a 10% discount.
