“Eternity”: Simone Kermes (soprano, Germany), Gianluca Geremia (theorbo, Italy)

On December 5, an opera superstar returns to Paliesius Manor with an exquisite program! Simone Kermes, a coloratura soprano celebrated for her truly distinctive timbre, will perform this time alongside the Italian theorbo player Gianluca Geremia.

Simone Kermes is internationally renowned for her unique stage charisma, expressiveness, and extraordinary virtuosity. Her artistry is most vividly revealed through her concert repertoire, with which she successfully tours the world.

The singer’s concept albums are born from a deeply personal artistic vision: S. Kermes develops them herself and assumes responsibility for the entire production process. She rejects stylistic boundaries; her work naturally intertwines baroque, classical, opera, pop music, and crossover genres. Her albums consistently reach the highest positions not only on classical music charts but also on pop charts.

In 2017, S. Kermes founded her own orchestra, “Amici Veneziani”—the result of many years of close artistic collaboration with musicians. The fundamental principle of this ensemble is to unite quality and humanity, to experience them together, and to pass them on.

That same year, the singer established her own artists’ agency, “Arcadia Musica GmbH.” She also leads masterclasses worldwide. Supporting young artists and passing on musical knowledge and experience are matters remarkably close to her heart. Since 2025, S. Kermes has served as a mentor at the Leipzig University of Music.

S. Kermes performs regularly in the world’s most prestigious opera houses and concert halls. She is a laureate of the Mendelssohn and Bach prizes and has received numerous other awards: for example, she earned one “Echo Klassik” as Singer of the Year, and another for Opera Recording of the Year. In 2026, Simone Kermes will take a new step as an opera director.

With her album “Inferno e Paradiso” (2020), the singer climbed to the very top of the classical music charts, demonstrating that the roots of all music lie in the baroque era. In this project, she merges baroque and pop music, energetically supported by her orchestra, “Amici Veneziani.”

The international press responded enthusiastically: “Kermes adorned melodies with baroque ornaments, exceptional coloratura, and bold high notes until Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ sounded even edgier than the original,” stated the daily “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” while the magazine “Concerti,” which selected it as album of the month, praised her for creating an “emotional rollercoaster that rolls from the ears straight to the heart.”

Theorbo player Gianluca Geremia was born in 1991. He began playing the Renaissance lute as his first instrument at the age of 10, thanks to the “Dolce Consort” project led by Maurizio Baghin and Dario Pivato, his first lute teacher. Two years later, he began studying the Renaissance lute at the Early Music School in Venice under Massimo Lonardi, and a few years after that, he entered the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory of Venice to study the lute under Tiziano Bagnati.

In 2014, he graduated with honors in Renaissance lute from Tiziano Bagnati’s class at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory of Venice. Two years later at the same conservatory, again under Tiziano Bagnati, he earned his master’s degree with honors in theorbo studies. The musician has also studied contemporary composition, as well as Renaissance composition and counterpoint, at the Venice Conservatory in the classes of Riccardo Vaglini and Marco Gemmani.

He is a member of the ensemble “La Vaghezza.” With this ensemble, he won first prize at the international “Maurizio Pratola” competition (L’Aquila, 2016), as well as first prize, the audience prize, and the Bärenreiter prize at the Handel Competition (Göttingen, 2018). Currently, the ensemble is one of the ensembles in residence for the European project “Eeemerging.”

G. Geremia has worked with various ensembles, including: “Modo Antiquo,” “Il Pomo d’Oro,” “Venice Baroque Orchestra,” “Les Musiciens du Louvre,” “Mare Nostrum,” “I solisti della Cappella Marciana,” “Theresia Youth Baroque Orchestra,” “Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia,” “Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice,” “Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai,” “Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino,” “Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini,” “Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie,” and “Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin.”