Charlotte & Josefien Stoppelenburg form the duo Unique Harmony of Two Voices. In 1997, the sisters were the first to win the Princes Christina Competition for vocalists after which they built up a national and international reputation. They are regularly seen and heard on the Dutch national television and radio and their concert for the Dutch Royal Family was broadcasted life on national television.Concert tours have taken them to the Germany, France, Italy, United States, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. The exceptional way their voices blend, perfected by outstanding individual technique and years of experience together has enabled them to reach a large audience.
Charlotte and Josefien studied in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Cologne (Germany) and attended master classes of, among others, Henk Smit, Kurt Widmer (in Basel, Switzerland), Julia Hamari (Vienna), James Bowman (Irsee, Germany) and Brigitte Fassbaender (Kufstein, Austria).
Charlotte and Josefien have a very wide repertoire, ranging from early music to contemporary music. They are both regularly invited as soloists in oratorios in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA. They sang in various opera productions. Charlotte, for example, performed several roles with the Oper Köln and Josefien with the Junge Kammeroper Köln and the Chicago Haymarket Opera. They worked with orchestras like WDR-Rundfunkorchester, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Nationaal Philharmonisch Orkest, Johan Willem Friso Kapel, Amsterdams Promenade Orkest and Camerata Amsterdam, Baroque Band and with conductors like Marcus Creed, Vladimir Jurowksi, Jurjen Hempel, Jan Stulen, Michael Tabachnik, Jeroen Weierink, Jules van Hessen, Garry Clark and Stephen Alltop. The sisters also performed regularly at international chamber music festivals, like the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam (2008) and Musikalische Sommer Ostfriesland (2008). They are frequently asked to perform during festivities whether for business firms or private persons.
Apart from this, Charlotte and Josefien concentrate on music that is specially written or arranged for them by various composers, among whom Stephen Westra, Lonny Ziblat, Wijnand van Klaveren, Frank van Gompel, Theo Nederpelt, Bob Zimmerman, Frank den Boer, Joop Nuyten and their father Willem Stoppelenburg.
In 2009 they partook in the Internationaal Chamber Opera Festival in Zwolle, in which they both sang a mono-opera on a libretto by J. Cocteau. Josefien performed La Voix Humaine by Poulenc, Charlotte Le Bel Indifférent , written especially for her by her father. This production will be broadcasted on Cultura Television and was performed in several Dutch theaters last season.
On December 10th and 18th they will be soloists with the Apollo Chorus of Chicago (Stephen Alltop) to perform Händels Messiah in the Chicago Symphony Center and in the Harris Theater. In January and February 2011 they will make a concert tour with Camerata Amsterdam to Kiev, Ukraine, also to perform Händels Messiah. In March the sisters will sing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the same orchestra.
Next Summer and Fall, Josefien and Charlotte are engaged to sing Theodora and Irene in Händels ‘Theodora’ in Winterthür, Switzerland and will perform with the piano duo Martijn and Stefan Blaak, in a ‘two sisters and two brothers concert’ in Italy.
biography
Charlotte & Josefien Stoppelenburg form the duo Unique Harmony of Two Voices. In 1997, the sisters were the first to win the Princes Christina Competition for vocalists after which they built up a national and international reputation. They are regularly seen and heard on the Dutch national television and radio and their concert for the Dutch Royal Family was broadcasted life on national television.Concert tours have taken them to the Germany, France, Italy, United States, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. The exceptional way their voices blend, perfected by outstanding individual technique and years of experience together has enabled them to reach a large audience.
Charlotte and Josefien studied in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Cologne (Germany) and attended master classes of, among others, Henk Smit, Kurt Widmer (in Basel, Switzerland), Julia Hamari (Vienna), James Bowman (Irsee, Germany) and Brigitte Fassbaender (Kufstein, Austria).
Charlotte and Josefien have a very wide repertoire, ranging from early music to contemporary music. They are both regularly invited as soloists in oratorios in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA. They sang in various opera productions. Charlotte, for example, performed several roles with the Oper Köln and Josefien with the Junge Kammeroper Köln and the Chicago Haymarket Opera. They worked with orchestras like WDR-Rundfunkorchester, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Nationaal Philharmonisch Orkest, Johan Willem Friso Kapel, Amsterdams Promenade Orkest and Camerata Amsterdam, Baroque Band and with conductors like Marcus Creed, Vladimir Jurowksi, Jurjen Hempel, Jan Stulen, Michael Tabachnik, Jeroen Weierink, Jules van Hessen, Garry Clark and Stephen Alltop. The sisters also performed regularly at international chamber music festivals, like the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam (2008) and Musikalische Sommer Ostfriesland (2008). They are frequently asked to perform during festivities whether for business firms or private persons.
Apart from this, Charlotte and Josefien concentrate on music that is specially written or arranged for them by various composers, among whom Stephen Westra, Lonny Ziblat, Wijnand van Klaveren, Frank van Gompel, Theo Nederpelt, Bob Zimmerman, Frank den Boer, Joop Nuyten and their father Willem Stoppelenburg.
In 2009 they partook in the Internationaal Chamber Opera Festival in Zwolle, in which they both sang a mono-opera on a libretto by J. Cocteau. Josefien performed La Voix Humaine by Poulenc, Charlotte Le Bel Indifférent , written especially for her by her father. This production will be broadcasted on Cultura Television and was performed in several Dutch theaters last season.
On December 10th and 18th they will be soloists with the Apollo Chorus of Chicago (Stephen Alltop) to perform Händels Messiah in the Chicago Symphony Center and in the Harris Theater. In January and February 2011 they will make a concert tour with Camerata Amsterdam to Kiev, Ukraine, also to perform Händels Messiah. In March the sisters will sing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the same orchestra.
Next Summer and Fall, Josefien and Charlotte are engaged to sing Theodora and Irene in Händels ‘Theodora’ in Winterthür, Switzerland and will perform with the piano duo Martijn and Stefan Blaak, in a ‘two sisters and two brothers concert’ in Italy.