Workshop & Festival 2025

July 8th-13th, 2025 in Florence, Italy

Following the success of its workshop last year in the new location of Florence, Lied the Way will return to the Renaissance capital to host another workshop for female Lied Duos from July 8th-13th, 2025.

The workshop will continue on the success of the previous three years, focusing on the holistic approach to our careers as women while also featuring new mentors as well as a development into a Song Festival.

Nourishing Collaboration

The workshop this year will again be open for female Lied Duos of all stages of their development and career. We first opened the workshop to singers last year, and quickly recognized the need for us to address female collaboration within our industry. Relationships are one of the core strengths for us as women, and yet while we usually value and nurture them on a personal level, we often fall short of caring for them on a professional level. In a culture that wants to put women in competition with one another and has few models for how we can work together effectively, we will look at the foundations of what make healthy and successful female collaborations— musically, professionally, and personally— and how we can nurture these individually and as part of a larger community.

Beyond a “Masterclass”

A key point in our mission at Lied the Way is to explore and expand our current modes of education in the classical music industry, going beyond the typical hierarchical “masterclass”. To guide us in this exploration, we are excited to have back Prof. Anne le Bozec (head of vocal accompaniment, Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse Paris) and welcome for the first time Erika Switzer (head of Collaborative Piano, Bard College) and renowned soprano Marlis Petersen (Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, etc). We will meet in the evenings for group sessions with the mentors, using different modalities to explore new ways of sharing and learning about music.  Previous sessions have included duos teaching one another with mentor feedback, as well as group teaching all together. Each duo will also receive an individual session with the mentors during the course of the workshop to work on specific repertoire. Additionally, Marlis will lead discussions on how to navigate a career in today’s industry while staying true to oneself and one’s values.

Returning to our Bodies and Voices

We are thrilled to welcome back holistic vocal coach, singer-songwriter, and doula Kendy Gable, who will lead a variety of activities to connect with our bodies, voices, and breath. Kendy invites you to approach singing as a path to self-knowledge, one that begins to reveal the possibilities within your voice and leads you into a deeper relationship with yourself, others, and the world. Participants will meet as a group each morning with Kendy and will also have a duo session with her over the course of the weekend, where she will show specific breath-work exercises from her experience as a doula to form stronger, trusting partnerships through the body and breath. You can check out more of Kendy’s work at www.openvoice.com

After the success of their seminars at the workshop last year, Lied the Way board members Emily Hehl and Elenora Pertz will hold various seminars for the duos during the week. Both Emily and Elenora in addition to their group seminars will offer coachings together with the duos individually, focusing on a specific project that the duo has in mind, and how they might bring that practically and artistically to life.

Pioneering Projects and Authentic Careers

LTW program manager Emily Hehl in addition to being the “glue which holds it all together” during the workshop, is a celebrated stage director and works at institutions such as the Vienna State Opera, Needcompany, and the Salzburg Festival. Emily will lead sessions on how to rethink the traditional “Liederabend” from a scenic perspective by diving into the potential forms between “concert and opera”. In addition to developing these visions together, she will share the necessary craft to realize these projects by exploring aspects of dramaturgy, lighting, and more. As the body of a performer is the beginning of every work, she will lead movement sessions for the duos to incorporate their bodies more into their music making.

Artistic Director Elenora Pertz is not only a multi-faceted pianist and visionary behind Lied the Way, but is a pioneer in the classical music scene, stretching the limits of the traditional education system and the definition of a “successful” career. She has taught a self-designed seminar for over two years at the Universität der Künste Berlin on “The Way of an Artist”, and from this course will shed life on how to apply life-design principles to shape authentic careers. Elenora was also recently certified in the newly-emerging field of Women’s Cycle Coaching, and will lead a session on how female artists can approach their artwork and careers from a cyclical perspective, going with instead of against their body’s natural rhythms.

Celebrating Song

Our organization and mission at Lied the Way continues to grow, and this year we will host a Song Festival alongside the workshop. As an organization we value the inner work and processes that are present during the workshop, and want to additionally host a festival in order to celebrate that art form for which we are all passionate and unites us. We are excited to present daring programs with exciting duos, as well support the careers of the current and former participants in our program.

For the opening concert on July 8th, 2025, Artistic Director Elenora Pertz will be joined by Israeli Mezzosoprano Hagar Sharvit, where they will present their “Witches, Muses, and Whores: Wild Women of Song” program. On Saturday, July 12th, 2025, former workshop participants and recent prize laureates of both the Wigmore Hall and Hugo Wolf song competitions, French Soprano Clara Barbier-Serrano and Polish pianist Joanna Kacperek will present their innovative “Tarot Card” program, which incorporates tarot reading into a traditional song recital. On July 13th, 2025, all of our current workshop participants will share the stage with one another, offering a recital which one London-based audience member last year praised as “better than anything I have heard at Wigmore Hall”.

Workshop and Festival

July 8th - 13th 2025

Workshop Days

July 8th - 11th

Opening Concert with Elenora Pertz and Hagar Sharvit

July 8th

Concert with Joanna Kacperek and Clara Barbier-Serrano

July 12th

Final Concert with the participants of the workshop

July 13th

Palazzo Corsini al Prato

The workshop takes place in a beautiful Baroque Palazzo in the heart of Florence, the home of Fondazione Mascarade Opera. We are very grateful to our partners at Mascarade Opera for offering their space to us and for supporting us on many levels!

The fee for the weekend is 400€ per participant*. This includes:

  • Participation in all group activities and individual coachings with all instructors from Tuesday afternoon to Friday evening.

  • Admission to both song recitals on July 8th and July 12th

  • Daily Lunch and snacks with the group in Florence (Breakfast and dinner are at the participants’ expense).

  • Welcome packet with valuable resources and LTW goodies.

  • Recommendations for affordable housing with partner organizations (housing and travel costs are at the participants’ expense, although there will be a limited number of host family opportunities).

* There is an additional 30€ application fee, which you do not have to pay if you are a member of Lied the Way e.V.

Applications are open until midnight on February 7th 2025

Meet our Mentors

  • Anne Le Bozec

    PIANIST, PROF. OF VOCAL ACCOMPANIMENT, CONSERVATOIRE NATIONAL SUPÉRIEUR PARIS

  • Kendy Gable

    SINGER-SONGWRITER, HOLISTIC VOCAL COACH, DOULA, FOUNDER OF “OPEN VOICE”

  • Erika Switzer

    PIANIST, HEAD OF COLLABORATIVE PIANO BARD COLLEGE, NEW YORK

  • Marlis Petersen

    SOPRANO AT WIENER STAATSOPER, BAYERISCHE STAATSOPER, BERLINER STAATSOPER, ETC.

  • Emily Hehl

    STAGE DIRECTOR, WORKING WITH WIENER STAATSOPER, NEEDCOMPANY, ETC. PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF LTW

  • Elenora Pertz

    PIANIST, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF LTW, INSTRUCTOR FOR ART SONG AT HOCHSCHULE FOR ARTS BREMEN, WOMEN’S CYCLE COACH

 FAQs

  • The core of our mission still remains in supporting female Lied pianists. Because our profession is a collaborative one, we decided to host this special-editon workshop to focus on how we as women can become better collaborators for and with one another, and have invited singers to join us in addressing this topic.

  • No, only female singers are invited to participate. For now we continue to keep our events women-only, as we believe that there are not enough spaces for women to learn from and share with each other in today’s society.

  • No, our programs are open to female artists of all generations. At LTW we believe that learning is a continuous spectrum and that experience can mentor youth and youth can inspire experience.

  • Yes, we are currently in the process of organizing a final concert on Sunday, July 14th. We know that performances can add an extra “pressure” to a workshop space, which is why we have avoided having them at our past workshops. However we want to look closer at our relationship to performing and explore ways that we can bridge the gap between what we are working on privately and what we share publicly.

  • No, if one of the members of your Duo is on our Verein (English: association) then your Duo is exempt from paying the 30€ application fee.

  • You are welcome to apply, however as we believe that it changes the group dynamic when everyone is there for the whole period, and at this workshop there will be a final performance, we will put a preference on Duos who will be able to attend for the entirety of the workshop.

Further reasons to become a part of the Lied the Way experience…

  • Meet and connect with like-minded and -spirited female Lied artists to expand your personal and professional network

  • Benefit from a female-only environment—a rarity in today’s society— to share with and learn from one another

  • Approach your art and career from a holistic perspective that goes above and beyond the mold of today’s classical music institutions

  • Spend time in one of the most breathtaking cities of the world, which has inspired countless artists for centuries

  • Be a part of the movement to empower and connect women to make a change in our Lied and classical music industry at large

Thank you!

Vielen Dank to the Athenaeum Dietrich Götze Stiftung für Kultur und Wissenschaft, without whom our workshop would not be possible

Photo credits: LTW Workshop- Alessio Chao. Headshots: Anne le Bozec- Paul Castanié; Emily Hehl- Álfheiður Guðmundsdóttir; Elenora Pertz- Guanchen Liu.