Festive New Year's Concert with the Franz Lehár Quartet and guest soloist Leonor Pereira Pinto (soprano)

A musical must-attend event can now be called the popular New Year’s Concert with the Franz Lehár Quartet at the Kurhaus. With a high-caliber program and the expansion of the artist quartet by a guest soloist, the Franz Lehár Quartet, featuring Zsolt Németh (piano), Edina Luczó (violin), Markus Lechner (double bass), and Matias Pérez (violin), welcomes the new year. The guest soloist for this evening is soprano Leonor Pereira Pinto. Born in Porto (Portugal), soprano Leonor Pereira Pinto began her musical training at the age of six with piano lessons at the conservatory in her hometown. She later discovered her passion for singing and studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Porto. Since 2022, she has continued her studies at the University of Music in Freiburg, where she is currently pursuing her master’s degree under Prof. Mareike Morr and Prof. Katharina Kutsch. In 2024, she made her debut with the Opera Factory Freiburg as Lucia in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. This was followed by performances at the Theater Freiburg as Feu and Rossignol in Maurice Ravel's L’enfant et les sortilèges and as Anne Frank in Grigori Frid's mono-opera The Diary of Anne Frank. She has also taken on roles such as Julia in Britten's The Little Sweep and as 1st Witch/Second Woman in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (university production of the University of Music Freiburg). Leonor Pereira Pinto regularly performs as a soloist with a particular focus on sacred music (Stabat Mater – Pergolesi; St. Mark's and St. Matthew's Passion – Bach; The Creation – Haydn) as well as art song. In 2024, she presented Wolfgang Rihm's song cycle Das Rot together with pianist Rúben Lopes in Porto. Additionally, she has premiered contemporary Portuguese works by Eugénio Amorim, Fernando Lapa, Telmo Marques, and Vítor Rua in Portugal, Germany, and Italy. In Freiburg, she also interpreted Benjamin Scheuer's work Lärmschutz. She has participated in master classes with Bernarda Fink and Prof. Burkhard Kehring, among others. The program is a reflective yet cheerful selection from the rich repertoire of the quartet, featuring classical salon pieces, famous works by Franz Lehár, as well as popular film and operetta melodies. Refreshments will be served in the hall at festively set tables one hour before the concert begins.