Concerts in Köpenick Palace Berlin

Maria‐Magdelena Pitu‐Jokisch was born in Bucharest in 1974. She began playing the piano at the age of 6. From 1980 to 1992, she attended the “G. Enescu” Music High School in Bucharest, where she subsequently studied for two years at the Academy of Music. In 1994, she moved to Berlin and studied piano as her major at the Berlin University of the Arts under Professors Hans Leygraf and Martin Hughes, graduating with distinction in 2001. She then began a supplementary program in concert piano at the “Hans Eisler” Academy of Music in Berlin under Professor Georg Sava, which she completed with honors in early 2005. During her musical training, she participated in international competitions and won, among others, third prize at the “G. Enescu” Competition and first prize at the “Pacem in Terris” Competition. She has already performed at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall with the Hohenfels Orchestra and has given concerts, radio performances, and solo recitals in Bucharest, Athens, Berlin, Darmstadt, Helsinki, Salzburg, Strasbourg, and Tokyo. She is currently active as a concert pianist and piano instructor.

Stephen Barchi was born in New York and studied at The Juilliard School and the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. He has lived in Berlin since 2013. At the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he sang Aeneas in *Dido and Aeneas*, the Novice’s Friend in *Billy Budd*, and roles in *Carmen*, *Rigoletto*, *Il barbiere di Siviglia*, and *Die Zauberflöte*. Further engagements have taken him to the Leipzig Opera, the Theater Aachen, and the Hamburg Chamber Opera. He appeared as Nicholas in Vanessa with the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin and took on the title role in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle in a production by the Hamburg Theater Academy in collaboration with the Hamburg State Opera.