Atalante Quartet & Erica Eloff - On Wings of Song

An evening about love, longing, pain, death, and letting go, interpreted by the Upper Austrian Atalante Quartet and soprano Erica Eloff, a favorite of the Landestheater Linz.

**Cast**
Erica Eloff — Soprano
Julia Kürner — Violin
Elisabeth Eber — Violin
Thomas Koslwosky — Viola
Lisa Kürner — Cello

On Wings of Song
String quartet and song: the most intimate forms of chamber music merge into a whole during this concert evening. An evening about love, longing, pain, death, and letting go, interpreted by the Upper Austrian Atalante Quartet and soprano Erica Eloff, a favorite of the Landestheater Linz.

**Atalante Quartet**
Founded in 2014, this young ensemble consists of musicians who all come from classes at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts and the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Their approach to chamber music is shaped by individual experiences working with members of the Alban Berg Quartet, the Hagen Quartet, the Vienna String Sextet, as well as Ferenc Rados and Bruno Weil. Regular collaboration with Johannes Meissl (Artis Quartet) and Hatto Beyerle (among others within the framework of the ECMA program) has provided the ensemble with important impulses. In 2018, the quartet was awarded 1st prize at the international chamber music competition Svirel in Slovenia, as well as 3rd prize at the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach.

Historically informed performance and engagement with the great tradition of quartet playing is at least as important to the ensemble as reaching a shared consensus on the interpretation and significance of these values in our time. Internalizing all of this, without losing sight of the essential idea of playful collaboration and mutual inspiration, challenge, and encouragement, is the highest priority in the work of the Atalante Quartet.

In 2021, the Atalante Quartet released its debut CD HAYDN. The ensemble is active both nationally and internationally (including America, Germany, Bulgaria).

**Erica Eloff**
The French/South African soprano Erica Eloff has been a member of the ensemble at the Landestheater Linz since 2020, where she sings roles such as Mathilde (Guillaume Tell), Agathe (Der Freischütz), Rachel (La Juive), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Leonore (Fidelio), and Mimì (La bohème). For her portrayal of Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) and Marie/Marietta (Die tote Stadt) in Linz, she was awarded the Austrian Music Theatre Prize 2024.

Most recently, she sang Elisabeth in Tannhäuser at the Graz Opera, as well as a performance of Strauss's Four Last Songs at the Brucknerhaus Linz and the Vienna Musikverein. Other engagements included the title role in Rodrigo at the Handel Festival Göttingen, Leonore (Fidelio) at the Theater Ulm, Tosca in Schwerin and Lübeck, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) and the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte) in Lübeck and Bielefeld, as well as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the Mozartfest Würzburg. She has performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, sung in Tippett's A Child of Our Time at the Southbank Centre, and participated in Handel's Catone in Utica at the London Handel Festival, as well as at Garsington Opera and Opera North.

Her operatic experience and repertoire encompass music from the early Baroque to the 21st century. As a passionate interpreter of songs and contemporary music, Erica Eloff has presented premieres of works by American, Argentine, English, and South African composers, including pieces specifically written for her. She was responsible for the South African premiere of George Crumb's "Federico’s Little Songs for Children" and the British premiere of Hendrik Hofmeyr's "Alleenstryd" at Wigmore Hall.

Current projects include her debut at the Vienna State Opera as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer.