Britta Jacobs & Irene Kalisvaart
Biography Britta Jacobs & Irene Kalisvaart
Britta Jacobs
studied in Cologne and Paris and completed her studies in Hannover with Andrea Lieberknecht in the soloist class. Born in Koblenz, she has won several awards at international competitions, including Graz, Markneukirchen and Haifa. While still a student, she played the solo flute in numerous opera performances and at the Salzburg Festival as part of the Staatskapelle Orchestra Academy under Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera. Following her training, she took up the position of principal flautist at the Staatstheater Kassel, and three years later joined the SWR Radio Orchestra also as principal flautist. In the same capacity and also as a soloist, she has been playing with and in front of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern since 2007. Musical exchanges and encounters with outstanding artists such as Zubin Mehta, Philippe Jordan, Péter Eötvös and Lars Vogt, guest invitations to renowned orchestras such as the Munich State Opera and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin continue to provide the musician with lasting artistic impulses. Concert tours with the wind quintet of the DRP as well as invitations to masterclasses in Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore enrich the musical life of the dedicated flautist in addition to her orchestral activities.
Irene Kalisvaart
was awarded the highest prize at the National Competition for Young Guitarists in Amsterdam at the age of 17. She studied with Jorge Oraison in Rotterdam, and continued with Ansgar Krause and Hubert Käppel at the Musikhochschule Köln where she finished her studies with distinction. She then went on to complete the ‘concert exam’ with Hubert Käppel in 2001. In between and thereafter she received numerous scholarships, international prizes and awards. Valuable musical mentors and masterclasses include Darko Petrinjak, Laura Young, Dale Kavanagh, Zoran Dukić, Àlex Garrobé, Pablo Márquez, Marco Socías, Thomas Müller-Pering, Aniello Desiderio and David Russell. As a soloist Irene Kalisvaart works with renowned orchestras and realises projects as an ensemble musician. She seeks out possibilities for further development on the guitar: with great passion she dedicates herself to new Baroque arrangements for her instrument. Her broad understanding of music leads her through the various epochs to new music. Since 2016 she has been a lecturer and educator at the Rheinische Musikschule Köln. Irene Kalisvaart plays a guitar by Kolya Panhuyzen (1992) with Hannabach Goldin strings.
