"Pia is wonderful to work with. She not only has a fantastic, very versatile voice but also wit, humor and charm! She implements directions very quickly and is always fully commited to her work. Her voice is clear and warm, her pronunciation exemplary. The openness of her voice and her expressiveness always deeply move me."
Christiane Oelze
“Pia Davila’s repertoire is wide-ranging. I consider one of her greatest strengths to be her ability to assimilate all musical styles. With intelligence and sensitivity, she finds her way through every musical style.”
Prof. J. Dopfer
Claudio Monteverdi, L’Orfeo
lautten compagney, Wolfgang Katschner, Gyula Orendt
“Pia Davila is convincing as Euridice with her clear and finely structured soprano voice.”
Die Oberbadische, Vogl, 22.07.2019
Claudio Monteverdis, L’Orfeo
The octet of vocal soloists were all of comparable quality: Gyula Orendt (Orfeo), Pia Davila (Euridice/Musica) and Ida Aldrian (Messaggiera/Proserpina), Georg Bochow (Speranza), Christian Pohlers and Martin Platz (Pastore), Cornelius Uhle (Plutone/Apollo) and Joel Frederiksen (Caronte), of which Orendt, Davila, Aldrian were particularly impressive.
Badische Zeitung, Nikolaus Cybinski, 23.7.2019
Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Aus Licht"
Pierre Audi, staging director
Kathinka Pasveer, musical director
Beside her perfect vocal control, it was the movement of her gestures which left one shaken. On the one hand she appeared to be the enraptured figure both of a mother and a saint; on the other, the incarnation of a traditionally Catholic representation of Maria.
Opera Online, Achim Dombrowski, 2019
Eine musikalische Zeitreise, zurück zu Clara Schumann
This was a bouquet of flowers so colorful that scarcely anyone today would seriously attempt assembling it: songs and duets by Schumann and Brahms, performed with a grace that invited intimacy by the soprano Pia Davila and the tenor Florian Sievers. (…)
Hamburger Abendblatt, Verena Fischer-Zernin, 7.10.2019
The Heideröslein is not the only thing that blooms here
“Im Zentrum Lied”: Pia Salome Bohnert and Linda Leine dedicate themselves to the rose
At the center of an impressive recital in the series “Im Zentrum Lied” at the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung stood the most deeply symbolic of all flowers. “In search of the rose” were the soprano Pia Salome Bohnert and her partner Linda Leine. Their search cannot have been a long one since there exists an inexhaustible fund of musical settings.
These include not only Goethe’s well-known “Heidenröslein” in the setting by Franz Schubert, or Marcel Louiguy’s popular “La vie en rose”, both of which can be heard after the intermission. The varied selection also includes the less familiar, such as “Verwelktes Blühen” (Mikolajková/Gerzenberg) or “Verrat” (Pfitzner/Kaufmann).
From the first notes, the pianist Linda Leine’s touch on the keyboard is telling. A symbolic streaming and rustling depicts a bleakness of the soul before Pia Salome Bohnert’s flexible voice introduces the “veiled death”. A poem by Walt Whitman underlies this ghostly introduction, in an experimental setting by George Crumb – one which is heard a second time at the conclusion, forming a framework.
The first part is, in the main, avant-garde and intellectual; unexpected, alien elements arrest the attention. In the final section, the harmonious duo creates opportunities for irony and humor. Bohnert’s splendid voice is strong and dynamic in its lower register, soaring effortlessly lightly to extreme heights. Leine, who also appears briefly as a soloist, proves herself an equal partner with an outstanding mastery of color and technique.
The evening was introduced and brought to a close by narrator Andreas Durban, who wittily and entertainingly recited rose-scented prose and poems from around the world.
Kölnische Rundschau, Michael Schardt, 8.2.2019
Der Name der Rose
“Im Zentrum Lied”, the small but excellent concert series, has carefully selected its artists over a period of twelve years; this time it is the turn of soprano Pia Salome Bohnert and her piano accompanist Linda Leine. This young and most congenial duo presented songs in various languages under the title “In search of the rose”, from Schubert’s “Heidenröslein” to the songs composed by American George Crumb in honor of Abraham Lincoln. From time to time, the pianist contributed miniatures, such as Prokofiev’s Dance of the Lilies, beautifully played with gossamer lightness.
It was not all about beauty and requited love. Poets and composers not infrequently imbue their depictions of nature with thoughts of dispossession and death. The third member of the group, Andreas Durban, broadened the canvas with his recitations of poetry and prose, even of short dictionary entries on the subject of flowers. There was much to discover, including the highly concentrated song form of the young Czech composer Anna Mikolajková. The finely-differentiated nuances with which the duo created, within a limited space, so many moods and colors, were astonishing – particularly beautifully in Ravel's dreams of the romantic Orient.
Bohnert’s young, well-produced voice was a delight. The delicate, bright voice could dance, but also, within the range of its abilities, suggest dark colorings. The voice, beginning sometimes as if from nowhere, remains cultivated, and the rose-tinted glasses always elegant – even in Edith Piaf’s world-famous chanson “La vie en rose”, in which the singer allowed herself to become just a little lascivious.
In Purcell's song "Sweeter than roses" (1695), the triumph of love was depicted in celebratory coloratura. Pain cried out again in Sofia Gubaidulina's song "Rosen auf dem Hügel". Lightheartdedness was proffered by the duo with grace and subtlty, the best example of which was Pfitzner's "Rösschen biss den Apfel an". The pointedly humorous performance provoked much laughter in the audience.
Kölner Stadtanzeiger, 8.2.2019
The Little Mermaid, Theater Bremen
"Pia Salome Bohnert as a mermaid brilliantly mastered the demanding soprano role, and is deeply moving in her resolution and desperation."
Kreiszeitung Bremen, 13.7.2015
"Excellent", Oct. 20, 2017, Graz
"An unusual bouquet was presented by soprano Pia Salome Bohnert and her pianist Linda Leine: Songs by Charles Koechlin are followed by Schubert, contemporary world premieres by Samuel Milea and Dong Zhou, and later Schönberg's "Erwartung" – and these are only excerpts from the program. The most astonishing, however, is: it works! Bohnert's arrow-sharp, crystalline-silver interpretation bestows an ethereal "Fin du Siècle" charm on all of the pieces, even onto Schubert, causing him to shine feverishly like a mirror."
KronenZeitungStmk, 20/10/2017, Seite 53
Summer Opera Schloss Rheinsberg
“(…) and Pia Salome Bohnert lends her dazzling soprano voice to Puccini’s Musetta”
Märkische Allgemein, Regine Buddekke, 4.8.2015
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Exsultate, jubilate
The young, very talented coloratura soprano Pia Salome Bohnert could be heard in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s motet “Exsultate, jubilate” in F major, KV 165 {…} Her youthful, fresh voice on Christmas Day fittingly expressed the uninhibited rejoicing to the glory of God which Mozart composed in this mixture of “gallant” sacred music and “coloratura aria”. The “Exsultate, jubilate” – Allegro and the meditative Andante “Tu virginum corona” deserve particular mention.
Ein Weihnachtsgeschenk der Jenaer Philharmonie an ihr Publikum, Dietmar Ebert, 3.1.2019
Peter Cornelius - Weihnachtslieder Op. 8
[...] He thought of it as “surging from the heart into the heart”. It was precisely this feeling that the soloist of the evening, Pia Salome Bohnert, successfully captured. In singing these rarely performed Christmas songs by Peter Cornelius, she took up and imparted the Christmas spirit with her beautiful, heartwarming soprano voice.
Ein Weihnachtsgeschenk der Jenaer Philharmonie an ihr Publikum, Dietmar Ebert, 3.1.2019