Lamento Project
About
Lamento Project
The unique trio combining different passions between music of the 17th and 21st centuries. Led by Polish soprano Dorota Szczepanska, the Hanover based group is composed of Israeli lutenist Alon Sariel and German Jazz bassist Peter Schwebs.
Unable to execute their planned 2020 agenda as soloists and ensemble musicians, the three found themselves in their own neighbourhood and were immidiately funded by the NeuStart Kultur scholarship to support their first steps together. Early 2022 saw the release of their Album, under the title Lamento Project.
The program includes music blocks in which one song flows smoothly into another, swinging between baroque and popular music with a hint of jazz! For a good hour of highly creative arrangements, Handel, Monteverdi, Purcell or Stradella will team up with Sting, Bob Telson, a Mexican folk ballad La Llorona or Priscilla's song from the computer game The Witcher. Some of the most beautiful lamenti of the Baroque will be presented: Lamento d'Arianna, Dido's Lament, Lamento della Ninfa, next to the newly composed Miranda's Lament, based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest" — by Krzysztof A. Janczak, created especially for Lamento Project.
The concert as a whole conveys the story of lamento as a timeless phenomenon, heterogeneous, full of colors and shades, that is ultimately leading to relief!
Dorota Szczepanska
Soprano singer who specializes primarily in the music of Baroque, Classicism and Early Romanticism. She willingly performs chamber music and boldly goes beyond the "classical area", successfully performing popular, experimental music, not avoiding improvisation and jazz.
She performed, among others, with Trevor Pinnock creating the role of Maria in Schubert's "Lazarus" at the Potsdamer Winteroper, Lee Reynolds recording Krzysztof A. Janczak's "Ave Maria" with the London Symphony Orchestra, Christina Pluhar singing at the Baltic Sea Festival with L'Arpeggiata, Howard Arman performing the title role in Handel's "Semele" and Ian Hobson recording music for the ballet "Stín" Martinů with Sinfonia Varsovia.
She participated in many world premieres of baroque operas. Together with Andrea de Carlo she created the part of Salome in "San Giovanni Battista" by Stradella with Gradus ad Parnassum, as well as the title role in "La Circe" together with Ensemble Mare Nostrum during the Festival Barocco Alessandro Stradella and in Teatro Carlo Felice singing alongside Topi Lehtipuu.
She also collaborated with the {oh!} Historical Orchestra under the direction of Martyna Pastuszka, performing, among others, the part of Segimiro in Hasse's opera "Arminio" and Mozart's "Requiem in D minor" together with The Marian Consort at the NOSPR.
She has made many recordings, including for the NAXOS label. She actively cooperates with film music composers: she took part in the Transatlantyk Film Festival at the invitation of Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, in 2019 she recorded music for the Canal + series "Zasada przyjemności" composed by Michał Lorenc, in 2020 music for the movie "Even Mice belong in Heaven" and 2021 for the "Black Sheep" by Krzysztof A. Janczak.
Alon Sariel
Mandolinist and lutenist, as well as a conductor, Alon Sariel is at home in the fields of both early and new music, having premiered dozens of works dedicated to him.
He appeared at festivals such as the Salzburg Biennale for New Music and the Early Music Festival in Utrecht, and has performed in halls such as the Berliner Philharmonie, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico and Sala São Paulo in Brazil. A winner of numerous international competitions, Alon Sariel has also been actively engaged in several social projects including Live Music Now (Yehudi Menuhin), Rhapsody in School (Lars Vogt) and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (Daniel Barenboim).
Currently residing in Hanover, Sariel is musical director of the international Baroque orchestra Concerto Foscari and founding member of PRISMA. Engagements as soloist/conductor led him to ensembles such as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Radio Symphony and Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, Tel Aviv Soloists, Camerata Tinta Barocca (Cape Town) and the Barokksolistene (Norway).
Alon Sariel is signed on several world premiere recordings such as the trios for plucked instruments by Israeli composers Paul Ben-Haim and Yehezkel Braun, as well as "Nedudim" for mandolin and string orchestra by Gilad Hochman (with Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin). His latest solo recordings, released to wide critical acclaim, include "Bach in the White City", "Paisiello in Vienna", "Rembrandt!" and "Telemandolin", which was awarded the prestigious OPUS KLASSIK. For the Beethoven Anniversary Alon was commissioned by NAXOS Classics to record Beethoven's mandolin works on historical instruments for the 2020 Beethoven Complete Edition.
Peter Schwebs
Bassist and composer Peter Schwebs lives in Hanover and New York. He works as a freelance musician with various international bands and projects performing and teaching in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the USA.
He received awards at a number of national and international jazz competitions. From 2007 till 2008, he was an adjunct instructor for Jazz Ensemble at New York University and received the Barney Josephson Award for Excellence in Jazz (2008).
Peter performed at international festivals such as the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Umbria Jazz (Italy), Jazzy Colours (France), Jazz Rallye Luxembourg, Jazz Bez (Ukraine), Jazz Peru Internacional, Costa Rica International Jazz Festival and Thelonious Jazz Festival Chile.
He has also participated in TV and broadcasting productions, and recorded with different artists, for example Teo Macero: Inner World Band "Study In Contrast" featuring Dave Liebman, Lee Konitz, Larry Coryell and Alex Sipiagin (Teo Productions Inc./NYU 2007) and schultzing feat. Mateusz Smoczynski "federleicht" (JazzHausMusik, 2011).
Additionally, he has released albums with his band projects in New York: "Stories from Sugar Hill" (LAIKA Records 2010), "In- between Seasons & Places" (BERTHOLD Records 2013), and two albums: "MURAL" (BERTHOLD Records 2016) and "Shishi's Wish" (BERTHOLD Records 2018) together with American-Japanese guitarist Aki Ishiguro and Chilean drummer Rodrigo Recabarren.
In New York, Peter had the chance to play with internationally acclaimed artists and had the privilege of performing at some of New York's most prestigious jazz venues such as The Blue Note, Dizzy's at Lincoln Center, Smalls and 55 Bar.