Duo Lab.51
“Nur wer sich bewegt, entdeckt Neues”. (Nike Keisinger)
LAB51 is an interdisciplinary duo founded in 2015 by Johanna Vargas and Magdalena Cerezo, aiming to expand the contemporary repertoire for coloratura soprano and piano and to develop a new concept of Liedduo. Both artists work together to intertwine vocal, multimedia, and performance art with classical singing and piano playing in their projects and performances.
The collaboration between Johanna and Magdalena began during their contemporary music studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart under Prof. Angelika Luz and Prof. Nicolas Hodges, respectively. Since then, LAB51 has worked with composers such as Bernhard Lang, Johannes Kreidler, Wolfgang Rihm, Hans-Joachim Hespos, Gerhard Stäbler, Gregor Mayrhofer, Benjamin Scheuer, Hans Thomalla, Manuel Hidalgo Navas, and Óscar Escudero/Belenish Moreno-Gil. They have also received musical guidance from world-class artists such as Sarah Maria Sun, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Georg Nigl, Julia Mihály, Anika Rutkofsky (Stuttgart Opera House), Christian Dierstein, and Hartmut Höll.
During the 2023/24 season, the duo performed internationally at festivals such as ZeitGenuss (Karlsruhe), Musica in Prossimità (Pinerolo, Italy), Meta World Contemporary Art Festival (Belgrade), Vocations – Reimagining the Lied (Berlin), and ECLAT (world premiere of The Day Fanny Mendelssohn Died by Belenish Moreno-Gil & Óscar Escudero). They also appeared at RESIS (Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid), Literaturhaus Stuttgart (invited by the Staatsoper Stuttgart), NDR (Kleiner Sendesaal, Hannover), the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, Schauspiel Frankfurt, and Festival de Royaumont.
In 2022, LAB51 obtained an artistic residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and performed at various events organized by Radio France and the Royaumont Foundation. During the 2020-21 season, LAB51 was a featured ensemble of the Munich Society of New Music, performing at the portrait concert of composer and conductor Gregor Mayrhofer. They also premiered and recorded Benjamin Scheuer's Sprechblasen for soprano, guitar, percussion, and piano with objects and samplers at the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Mainz alongside Vanessa Porter and Thilo Ruck.
Highlights from the 2018-19 season included engagements at NUNC!3 (Northwestern University Chicago), the New Music Series of Goethe-Institut Schwäbisch Hall, and ZeitGenuss Festival Karlsruhe, curated by Johannes Kreidler and featuring artists such as Ensemble Mosaik and Enno Poppe. During the same period, the duo participated in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik and won first prize at the John Cage Competition in Halberstadt, Germany.
LAB51's performances have been broadcast internationally on platforms such as Deutschlandfunk, NDR, Radio France, RTVE, and Radio Nacional Clásica Argentina, among others. In 2021, a CD recording of Wolfgang Rihm's Ophelia Lieder was released by Naxos-Capriccio.
Since 2018, LAB51 has been coaching a program in contemporary voice training and performance while curating the concert and project series Out of the Box at the University of Music Karlsruhe.
Upcoming engagements include concerts in Vienna (SUENA Festival) and Linz (Sonic Lab), presenting world premieres by Natalia Laguens and Jorge Gómez Elizondo, alongside Helmut Lachenmann’s iconic Got Lost. Furthermore, LAB51 will be presenting works from Bernhard Lang and Helmut Lachenmann at Ensems Festival (Palau de les Arts, Valencia). Additionally, The Day Fanny Mendelssohn Died will be performed again at the ZeitGenuss Festival 2025 in Karlsruhe.
THE DAY FANNY MENDELSSOHN DIED A song cycle (2023/24) LAB51: Johanna Vargas & Magdalena Cerezo Falces. Recording of the premiere at ECLAT Festival Stuttgart.
Photo. Oliver Röckle