Piano and Vocal Duo – Pedro Costa, Ilker Arcayürek

(PT/AT/TR)

Pedro Costa | piano

Specialised in vocal and chamber music accompaniment, Pedro Costa is a Portuguese pianist currently living in Vienna, Austria. Since 2017, he has been a piano accompanist at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. In 2026, he was also appointed professor of piano accompaniment at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (MUK).

He has won major competitions such as the Estoril Vocal Competition, the Young Musicians’ Prize, the Helena Sá e Costa Prize, the Louis Spohr Competition (Germany) and the New Tenuto Competition (Belgium), amongst others. He was also awarded the Prize for Best Accompanist at the Portuguese Rotary Foundation Competition, First Prize at the Helmut Deutsch Lied Competition in Vienna and Second Prize at the ‘Franz Schubert and Modern Music’ International Lied Competition in Graz.

Appearing as a soloist with various orchestras, including the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the Cascais and Oeiras Chamber Orchestra, the Algarve Orchestra, the Beiras Philharmonic Orchestra, the Koninklijke Muziekkapel van de Gidsen and the Orkest der Lage Landen, under the baton of conductors such as Nuno Coelho, Joana Carneiro, Josephine Korda, Yves Segers, Walter Proost, António Saiote, Luís Carvalho and Zvonimir Hacko.

He has performed in major European concert halls, notably Wigmore Hall in London; the Große Saal at the Mozarteum in Salzburg; the Volksoper in Vienna; Flagey in Brussels; Casa da Música in Porto; as well as the Belém Cultural Centre, the São Carlos National Theatre and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. In addition, he has taken part in European festivals such as the Heidelberger Frühling, Liedfest Berlin-Oxford, Kammermusik in Graz, Festival ao Largo, Cistermúsica, Póvoa do Varzim, and the Estoril Lisbon Festival, amongst others. In recent years, he has collaborated with the Xiquitsi educational project in Maputo (Mozambique).

As co-founder and Artistic Director of ‘Projeto:Canção’, he established a festival dedicated to the Lied in Porto in 2022, with the aim of promoting this genre in Portugal. He regularly collaborates as a teacher and guest musician with the Xiquitsi educational project in Maputo, Mozambique.

Pedro Costa is a graduate of ESMAE, the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels and the University of Music in Graz, where he studied Lied with Joseph Breinl and Julius Drake. He has also taken part in masterclasses with leading artists such as Udo Reinemann, Christianne Stotijn, Anne Sofie von Otter, Peter Schreier, Christoph Prégardien, Brigitte Fassbaender and Wolfgang Holzmair, amongst many others.

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Ilker Arcayürek | tenor

The tenor Ilker Arcayürek, born in Istanbul and raised in Vienna, won first prize at the Hugo Wolf Academy’s International Song Competition , was a finalist at the 2015 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, and was part of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist programme.

He began his operatic career at the Zurich Opera Studio and later became a member of the ensemble at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and the Staatstheater Nürnberg. His roles include Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Idomeneo, Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and Rodolfo (La Bohème), and more recently Max (Der Freischütz) and Erik (Der fliegende Holländer). As a guest performer, he has appeared at venues including the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Munich Opera Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the Volksoper Wien and the Oper Graz.

He has worked with a number of renowned directors, including Peter Konwitschny, Claus Guth, Mariame Clément and Christoph Marthaler. He made his US debut as Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles at the Santa Fe Opera and has performed on major international stages, including Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, the Edinburgh International Festival and in Tokyo with the Bach Collegium Japan. In concert, he regularly collaborates with prestigious orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, having worked under the baton of conductors including Mariss Jansons, Marin Alsop, Philippe Herreweghe and Jordi Savall, amongst others.

Alongside opera and concerts, the lied holds a special place in his artistic career. He regularly collaborates with pianists such as Simon Lepper, Malcolm Martineau, Ammiel Bushakevitz, Daniel Heide, Hartmut Höll and Wolfram Rieger. His recitals have taken him to the Edinburgh International Festival, Oper Frankfurt, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg/Hohenems, Wigmore Hall in London, the Schubertiada Vilabertran, deSingel in Antwerp, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Life Victoria in Barcelona, Innsbruck, Stuttgart (Hugo Wolf Academy), as well as his recital debut in the United States, in New York (Park Avenue Armory), and San Francisco. His recordings have received numerous awards and have been nominated twice for the Opus Klassik.

His engagements also include his debut as Erik in Der fliegende Holländer at the Theater Osnabrück, concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris under the baton of Jordi Savall, performances at Wigmore Hall in London, recitals with Malcolm Martineau in Bilbao, as well as appearances with the Danish National Philharmonic and the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra.

PROGRAMME

A Poet’s Loves
Schumann – Hahn – Mendelssohn
Vocal and Piano Recital

ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Widmung (Dedication), op. 25 n.º 1 (Friedrich Rückert)
Du bist wie eine Blume (You are like a flower), op. 25 n.º 24 (Heinrich Heine)
Aus den “Östlichen Rosen” (The ‘Roses of the East’) n.º 25 (Friedrich Rückert)

REYNALDO HAHN (1874-1947)
La barchetta (The little boat) (Pietro Burrati)

 FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Auf Flügeln des Gesanges (On the Wings of Song), op. 34 n.º 2 (Heinrich Heine)
Nachtlied (Night Song), op. 71 n.º 6 (Joseph von Eichendorff)

ROBERT SCHUMANN
Dichterliebe (Poet’s Loves), op. 48 (Heinrich Heine)                                                                                         

1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the lovely month of May)
2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (From my tears spring)
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (The rose, the lily, the dove, the sun)
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’ (When I look into your eyes…)
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (I want to plunge into your soul)
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (In the Rhine, the sacred river)
7. Ich grolle nicht (I bear you no grudge)
8. Und wüßten’s die Blumen, die kleinen (And if only the flowers, the little ones, knew)
9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (That is the sound of flutes and violins)
10. Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen (I hear the little song ringing out)
11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (A young man loves a maiden)
12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (On a radiant summer morning)
13. Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (I wept in my dreams)
14. Allnächtlich im Traume (Every night in my dreams)
15. Aus alten Märchen (From old fairy tales)
16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (The old, wicked songs)