Since Herbert von Karajan brought him to the Salzburg Festival, Francisco Araiza has become one of the world’s most demanded interpreters on the great opera and concert stages, particularly at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Zürich Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, which in 1988 recognised him as its then-youngest “Kammersänger”, and the Metropolitan Opera New York.

Following legendary interpretations of Mozart and Rossini, from the mid-1980s he sang the lirico-spinto roles in the operas of Verdi, Puccini, Massenet, Gounod and Wagner, to great acclaim. His commitment to the education of young singers is apparent through not only his masterclasses, but also his namesake foundation in Mexico City, as well as his activity as juror in international singing competitions. Since 2003 he has held the post of professor at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. At the International Opera Studio Zürich, he teaches vocal and stylistic development, and is active within the structure of the Bertelsmann Foundation “Neue Stimmen,” as well as juror on the board of that competition.

Furthermore, he is a member of the foundation board of the “Liz Mohn Kultur-und Musikstiftung” in Berlin, as well as of the European Foundation “Europamusicale” in Munich, and the SIAA Foundation in Liechtenstein. He was artistic director of the Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie and founded the foundation “Neue Meister der Liedkunst” in 2009. In 2011, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes granted him its gold medal to recognise his four-decade-long international singing career.

Greta Benini, originally from Ravenna, Italy, is musical director of the Master Opera Programme at Musik- und Kunstuniversität MUK, Vienna

As pianist, she graduated with distinction from the Ravenna Conservatory. She continued her studies in Piano and Chamber Music at the Accademia Internazionale in Florence and the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola. She also obtained an EU-sponsored Diploma in Piano-Didactics, studying with Piernarciso Masi, Alexander Lonquich, Konstantin Bogino, Boris Petrushanski, Franco Scala, and Riccardo Risaliti.

Since 1999, Greta Benini has been based in Vienna, where she specialized as a solo pianist at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. Additionally, she pursued studies in Lied and Oratorium Accompaniment at the Vienna Conservatory. Significant milestones in her career as a collaborative pianist include extensive, long-term collaborations with Paul Hamburger (Lied and Oratorium) and the renowned Italian coach Ubaldo Gardini (Covent Garden, London).

Greta Benini's accomplishments include winning first prize in the Chamber Music Competition "Caravita," second prize in the International Lied Competition "Guarda l'Europa" (Florence), reaching the semi-finals of the Wigmore Hall Song Competition (London), and receiving a special prize in the Belvedere International Competition for Collaborative Pianists (Vienna).

Since 2000, she has been active as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach in Vienna at institutions like the Volksoper, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Institute for European Studies, and Kammeroper. Starting from 2006, Greta Benini has been a member of the Faculty of the Vienna State Conservatory, and as of 2010, she holds the position of Senior Artist at the Performing Arts University of Graz. She was also the official accompanist for the International Competition ÖJAB (Vienna-Tokyo).

Greta Benini has been teaching at numerous masterclasses and working sessions with renowned figures like Angelika Kirchschlager (University of Graz), Michael Schade (Musikverein Wien), KS Hilde Zadek, KS Walter Berry, Robert Holl, Carlos Montane (Urbania, Italy), Antonio Carangelo, Helena Lazarska, KS Birgid Steiberger (Wiener Meisterkurse), and Franz Lukasowsky. She has also served as a speech and musical coach for the ORF CD-production of “Don Giovanni” with Bertrand de Billy , “Die Walküre” at the Auditorium, A Coruña, Spain, under Víctor Pablo Pérez, " Die Zauberflöte" under Michele Mariotti, Teatro comunale of Bologna.

In her role as a stage partner and vocal coach, Greta Benini has collaborated with internationally acclaimed singers, including Bryn Terfel, Andrea Rost, Gregory Kunde, Genia Kühmeier, Wolfgang Holzmair, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Melba Ramos, Birgid Steinberger, Arona Bogdan, Dario Schmunck, Regina Schörg, Nicola Ulivieri, Vincent Schirmacher and many others.

From 1998 to 2009, Greta Benini was the recital partner of the young Viennese baritone, Florian Boesch. She was playing in Vienna  as Lied pianist ( Ehrbarsaal, Kammeroper, Boesendorfersaal, Gläserneresaal of Musikverein, Steinwayhaus, Schuberthaus,  Mozarthaus,the Styriarte Graz, ORF Grosser Sendersaal), Italy, New York.

She was Teacher of german, spanisch and italian vocal chamber music at the International Music Festival Sankt Goar.

She was musical and vocal coach for the Wiener Philharmoniker " Angela Prokopp" Akademie for the Mozart Italian Operas.

Estera Stenzel, born in Transylvania (Romania), studied acting at the National Theatre in Timisoara (Romania) for five years and was awarded the prize for best young actress at the 1984 Contemporary Plays Theatre Festival. She moved to Germany in 1987. She performed at theatres in Lübeck, Cologne and Bonn and directed her own projects. For ten years, she looked after young actors at the Theater der Keller school in Cologne, where she set up a compact programme for the basic seminar. The Camera Acting Centre in Cologne gave her the basis for working in front of the camera. She also followed the development of the Stanislawski Method in seminars by Juri Alschitz, International Theatre Institute (ITI) Berlin. In Berlin, she staged at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm and directed the Caragiale 100 festival. Since 2004, she has taught with passion in all years of study at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts Berlin, both in the acting department and in the contemporary puppetry department. While she taught the basic seminar there, the top priority was to stimulate the play instinct, because without the play instinct, the actor is lost.

"The sensual instinct wants there to be change, for time to have content; the formal instinct wants time to be suspended, for there to be no change. So the instinct in which both work together, the play instinct, would be directed towards cancelling time in time, reconciling becoming with absolute being, change with identity." Schiller

Jörg Artistic Director and Conductor of WienSinfonietta, Artistic Director of European Music Institute Vienna and has served for many years Vice Artistic Director of Wiener Meisterkurse. From 2005-2011 he was Conductor and Music Director of “Blutenburg Kammerphilharmonie München” and “Opera Nymphenburg”.

Besides the symphonic standard repertoire, his passion and dedication belongs to the symphonic œuvre from Haydn to the 20th century and the operas of Mozart.

Jörg is also constantly seeking after re-discovering orchestral and opera masterworks of composers being lost or forgotten through the turmoil of the first half of the 20th century, such as Egon Wellesz, whose 1st symphony he conducted as American firts-performance in 2018, as well as Ernst Krenek, Edmund von Borck, Erwin Schulhoff and Rudi Stephan.

As a sought-after conducting teacher he has recently published his fundamental study "The Observation of Form" with academia.edu and has held master courses in conducting at Wiener Meisterkurse as well as in Germany, Hungary, Italy and México. Currently he is Guest Professor for conducting at ARTS2, École supérieure des Arts de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles in Mons, Belgium.