On December 5, an opera superstar returns to Paliesius Manor with a wonderful program! Simone Kermes, a coloratura soprano possessing an extraordinary vocal 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 fully revealed through her concert repertoire, with which she successfully tours across the globe.

The singer’s conceptual albums are born from a deeply personal artistic vision: S. Kermes develops them herself and takes responsibility for the entire production process. Rejecting stylistic boundaries, her work naturally blends Baroque, classical, opera, pop music, and crossover genres. Her albums consistently reach the highest positions on both classical and pop music charts.

In 2017, S. Kermes founded her own orchestra, “Amici Veneziani”—the result of many years of close artistic collaboration with musicians. The guiding 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 gives masterclasses worldwide. Supporting young artists and passing on her musical knowledge and experience are endeavors especially close to her heart. As of 2025, S. Kermes is a mentor at the Leipzig University of Music.

S. Kermes regularly performs at 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, earning 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 brings together Baroque and pop music, energetically supported by her orchestra, “Amici Veneziani”.

The international press responded enthusiastically: “Kermes embellished melodies with Baroque ornaments, extraordinary coloratura, and bold high notes until Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ sounded even sharper than the original,” stated the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, while the magazine Concerti, which selected it as its Album of the Month, praised the “emotional rollercoaster that rolls from the ears straight into the heart” she creates.

Gianluca Geremia, who will play the theorbo, was born in 1991. He began playing the Renaissance lute as his first instrument at the age of 10, through 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 School of Early Music in Venice under Massimo Lonardi, and a few years after that, he entered the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice to study the lute under Tiziano Bagnati.

In 2014, he graduated with honors in Renaissance lute studies from Tiziano Bagnati’s class at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice. Two years later at the same conservatory, also under Tiziano Bagnati, he earned a master’s degree with honors in theorbo studies. The musician has additionally studied modern composition, 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 the ensemble, he won first place at the Maurizio Pratola International Competition (L’Aquila, 2016) and first place, the audience prize, and the Bärenreiter prize at the Handel Competition (Göttingen, 2018). The ensemble is currently 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”.