Ohrid Summer Festival Birthday

Maayan Licht- sopranista

Winner of the “Best Newcomer” award at the Oper! Awards 2025, Licht is recognized as one of the most exciting emerging voices in opera today. Known as “the modern day Farinelli” Licht is celebrated for performing roles almost no-one else can sing, combining vocal virtuosity with emotional depth. Alongside his stage career, he has become a social media phenomenon, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and millions of views worldwide, bringing classical music and opera to new audiences across the globe.

Licht’s engagements in the 2025/26 season include his debut at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, where he will perform the role of Ra in the world premiere of Meriç Artaç’s Requiem for Mariza; the title role in Vinci’s Alessandro nell ’Indie at Theater an der Wien and Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at Teatro Ponchielli as part of the 2026 Monteverdi Festival.

He has received outstanding critical acclaim for his operatic portrayals at Theater an der Wien and Vienna Chamber opera, has appeared at Staatstheater Oldenburg, and with Julia Lezhneva (SWR Schwetzingen Festival and on tour); at the Oper Dortmund, Theatre Brno, Teatro Farnese, in Parma; at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival and at the Monteverdi Festival in Cremona.

Amongst his more experimental projects, he headlined a queer production of Bizet’s CarMEN, performing the title role in collaboration with renowned drag artists at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw and the celebrated Parade Festival. Licht also merges techno and opera with his group Technopera, performing at distinguished venues like the Concertgebouw and the renowned Down the Rabbit Hole Festival in the Netherlands.

Discovered by his Israeli teacher Vita Gurevich, Licht completed his vocal studies in Early Music at the Conservatory of Amsterdam under the guidance of Xenia Meijer, graduating with Distinction in 2021. Since then, he has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Bajazzo Sponsor Award 2025 from the Theater and Concert Friends (TuK) Dortmund for his portrayal of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at Oper Dortmund, the Grand Prize at the Vienna International Music Competition 2023, and both the jury and audience prizes at the Grachtenfestival Competition 2020 with his ensemble Duo Zeffiretti.

Przemek Winnicki-piano

Przemek Winnicki is a Polish concert pianist and prize winner of numerous international piano competitions in Poland and abroad. In May 2022, he made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie, performing the Warsaw Concerto by Richard Addinsell. In June 2022, he graduated from the Royal College of Music in London. He is a First Prize winner of the ЕPTA International Piano Competition in Serbia (2021) and Second Prize winner of the International Piano Competition in Ischia, Italy (2015). He also received the Grand Prix at the International Competition for Music Teachers in Warsaw (2013),

First Prize at the Chopin-Roma International Piano Competition (2011), and was a finalist at both the Moniuszko International Piano Competition in Minsk and the Yamaha Foundation Piano Competition in Poland (2011). As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras including the National Belarusian Orchestra in Minsk and the International Summer Academy Orchestra in Reichenau (Austria), as well as with philharmonic orchestras in Kraków, Rzeszów, and Łódź. He has recorded a CD featuring a Mozart piano concerto and collaborated with RMF Classic. Since 2014, he has been a scholarship recipient of the KLER Foundation. He regularly performs across Europe and internationally, with appearances in the USA, France, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belarus, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands.