Annaliisa Pillak

(mezzo-soprano) 

EDUCATION AND WORK
Annaliisa Pillak began her vocal studies at Georg Ots Music School in 1994 with Ludmilla Dombrovska-Keis. She continued her studies with Annika Ollinkari at the Sibelius-Academy where she received her MA degree in 2006. In the spring of 2005, she studied with Sonja Turchetta and Stelia Dozi at Accademia Verdiana in Milano. She has participated in the master classes of Taru Valjakka, Larissa Gergijeva, Tom Krause, Monica Groop, Anna Bergamo, Gustav Kuhn, Alessandro Amoretti among others and studied with Renate Behle in Germany. Since 2004, she has also performed as a Lied singer (Mozart, Shostakovitch, Berlioz, Mahler, Grieg, Rossini, Kokkonen, Tõnu Kõrvits, etc). Her oratorio and Lied repertoire is wide, consisting of such works as “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” and 8th Symphony by Mahler and “Les nuits d`été” by Berlioz. In 2012, Paavo Piik’s experimental concert-performance “Diva” premiered at the KUMU Art Museum’s auditorium and received wide acclaim at theatre and music festivals both in Estonia and Finland, reaching its 100th performance in spring 2023.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In 1995, she received the 3rd prize at the Estonian Young Singers Competition and the 1st prize in 1996. In 2005, she won the 2nd place at the Hendrik Krumm singing competition. She is also the winner of the scholarship by the Association of Estonian Professional Musicians in 2008, 2010 and 2012. In 2010, she won the scholarship of the International Association of Wagner Societies. 

REPERTOIRE
Sesto (Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito”)
Dorabella (Mozart’s “Così fan tutte”)
Cherubino (Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro”)
Witch (Humperdinck’s “Hänsel und Gretel”)
Angelina (Rossini’s “La Cenerentola”)
Mother Bayard and Ermengarde (Hindemith’s “The Long Christmas Dinner”)
Olga and Larina (Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”)
Dryad (R. Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos”)
Niklaus/Muse (Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”) 
The 2nd Diplomat (Tüür’s “Wallenberg”)
Maddalena (Verdi’s “Rigoletto”)
Rinaldo (Händel’s “Rinaldo”)
Kristi (Tubin’s “The Parson of Reigi”)
Woman (Lill’s “Into the Fire”)
Lisetta (Haydn’s “Life on the Moon”)
Brita (Länsio’s “Sulka”)
Old Maid (Menotti’s “Old Maid and the Thief”)
Earth (Literes’ “Los Elementos”)
Juula (Varres’ “The New Old Nick of Hellsbottom”)
Pierotto (Donizetti’s “Linda di Chamounix”)
Public Opinion (Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld”)