Faculty

Volker Piefke

Volker Piefke About CICADA con Management

"CICADA con offers a prime artists management to renowned and up-and-coming opera-singers, stage directors and conductors. After 16 years, we can provide a long list of customers in the operatic business. We maintain a roster of artists with international quality and represent them in all career endeavours. And we enjoy to discover and develop young talents in the world of opera! "

Volker Piefke studied African ethnography and economics at the university of Leipzig and Russian literature at Ivanovo university / Russia. After graduating, he went to Burkina Faso. Later, he worked as a reader and lecturer for notable German publishing houses. In the late nineties, Volker was involved in the (failed) re-launch of Berlin´s "Metropol-Theater" and an operetta-festival. But before this all could come true (or even not), he decided to establish his own agency and artists management – CICADA con. In 1999, Volker was granted with Germany´s "agency- licence", which authorized him to operate as a recognized artists management.

Since that time, Volker Piefke was invited to lecture in several institutes and schools, was a jury-member in vocal competitions like "Vox Artis" and held masterclasses in Moscow, Sibiu and Berlin.

And last but not least – continuing with CICADA con.

The name of the agency comes from the Greek mythology. A peasant desired to listen to the chant of the muses up on the mountain Olymp, just for once in his lifetime. Unfortunately, this was the privilege of the gods. So one of the gods offered him the opportunity to listen to the muses by metamorphizing into a cicada. As a one-way-ticket. The man did not hesitate. He knew his life on earth, but not the heavenly chant of the muses. Later, when the muses heard of this, they have decided to make the cicada to their holy animal, their talisman.

"Glücklich ist, wer vergisst, was doch nicht zu ändern ist." ("Die Fledermaus"; Johann Strauß). Opera, orchestral concerts or intimate chamber-music may create exactly this - the magic and consolation of oblivion. Already as a child these magic moments have enthused Volker. The passion-music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Handel or Heinrich Schuetz in the churches of his hometown and later all these wowing opera-performances in Berlin and Leipzig! They have all inspired him and formed an idea of music, of opera, of CICADA con.

www.cicada-con.de/