RECENT AND UPCOMING ENGAGEMENTS
- Zweite Blummenmädchen in Wagner's Parsifal and Eine Modistin in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, at La Monnaie De Munt;
- Recitals at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
LISA WILLEMS
soprano
BIOGRAPHY
Lisa Willems is a young Belgian soprano. She holds a masters degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen. Lisa is a Lauréate of the MM-Academy of La Monnaie De Munt in Brussels, her next role in that house is Eine Modistin in Der Rosenkavalier. Recently, she performed the role of Klingsors Zaubermädchen in Wagners’s Parsifal in their 2021-2022 season. Other engagements at La Monnaie include: Una Novizia (Suor Angelica/Puccini), Clotilde cover (Norma, Bellini), Mutter/Die Künstgewerblerin cover (Lulu/Berg). Zemlinsky’s Maiblumen Blüthen überall, concertini, and one of the Edelknaben in Wagner’s Lohengrin in 2018, which was her solo debut in the house. She covered the part of Mère Marie in La Monnaie’s production of Dialogues des Carmelites by Poulenc.
Lisa has appeared as Donna Anna/Zerlina in Don Juan by DESCHONECOMPANIE. Early 2020, Lisa performed the role of Leonore in Fidelio (Beethoven) by WALPURGIS. This production premiered as an animated video on Operavision and was selected for the 2021 theaterfestival.
Lisa is part of the trio in Ivo Van Hove’s Diary of one who disappeared (Janacek/Annelies van Parys), with muziektheater Transparant. Lisa plays the role of the Mother in (Victor) Frankenstein, a production by Les Karyatides which combines theatre of objects and classical music. In May 2019, Lisa performed in the Louis Andriessen festival in het Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ Amsterdam and at Operadagen Rotterdam in Odysseus’ Women + Anaïs Nin, directed by Jorinde Keesmaat.
Lisa was cover of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni by Mozart at the 2021 Dorset Opera Festival, which is the place where made her solo debut as Sacerdotessa in Aida by Verdi in 2014. In the 2017 festival Lisa sang the role of Alice in Dorset Opera’s production of Le Comte Ory by Rossini.
Lisa has had the privilege to work with people like Anne-Sophie von Otter, Stéphane Degout, Malcolm Martineau, Nico Hümpel, Bassem Akiki, Ed Lyon in Masterclasses and coachings. At RCS, she studied under the tutelage of Kathleen McKellar Ferguson. At La Monnaie she is coached by Ouri Bronchti and Angélique Noldus.
Since 2021, Lisa is an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, supported by the Butterfly fund, where she is taught by Sophie Koch and José Van Dam.