FRAUENLEBEN | Helene Feldbauer & Gulnara Arcaini
Friday, May 08, 2026 | Bechstein Centrum Wien
Wednesday, May 13, 2026 | Gesellschaft für Musiktheater
An Alternative Woman's Love and Life
The pianist Gulnara Arcaini and the mezzo-soprano Helene Feldbauer met while studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Already in Florian Boesch's art song class, they discovered their shared musical language and, through numerous performances, developed a close artistic bond. Their duo grew out of the joy of creating together and the desire to tell stories through art song in a contemporary way.
Their first joint project is titled "Frauenleben" – a staged song program that traces the stages of a woman's life, from youth through first love, marriage, motherhood, and loss to old age and transcendence. It sees itself as a contemporary response to Robert Schumann's cycle "Frauenliebe und Leben", but exclusively with works by women composers of the 20th and 21st centuries: Margarete Schweikert, Hélène Covatti, and Johanna Müller-Hermann.
The dramaturgy combines music, monologues, and staged elements into a modern form of song theater that places the female perspective, in all its emotionality, vulnerability, and strength, at the center.
Helene Feldbauer
Career Center Project Scholarship Holder
The mezzo-soprano, originally from Upper Austria, studied voice at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. While still a student, she was engaged for two years at Oper Frankfurt, where she was able to significantly expand her repertoire. She has also been a repeated guest at the Tyrol Festival Erl.
Helene is a prizewinner of several competitions; most recently, she was awarded the Anna Grobecker Prize and the Richard Wagner Scholarship.
She remains connected to her home company in Frankfurt, while increasingly devoting herself to art song and the concert stage as well.
Gulnara Arcaini
The pianist received her training in her hometown of Kazan (RU) and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she studied piano with Wolfgang Watzinger and Lied accompaniment with Markus Hadulla. She further developed her artistry in master classes with renowned musicians such as Philippe Entremont, Jerome Lowenthal, Helmut Deutsch, Hartmut Höll, and Roger Vignoles.
She has received numerous awards, including the Würdigungspreis of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Since 2022, she has worked as a répétiteur at her alma mater and, alongside this, pursues an active concert career that marks her as a sought-after partner on national and international stages.
