About us

The Ensemble LavioLa was grounded by Katalin Tarnai (singing) and Anna Heibl (harpsichord) in 2018 in Hungary. They have been touring Hungary and the world since 2018. They performed in the castles of Gödöllő and Hajós, at the Bach Festival Budapest, Kodály Festival Kecskemét, and in the Hungarian Salon Amsterdam, with music spanning multiple stylistic periods and genres. Starting from the renaissance and baroque repertoire, their programme grew with settings of Hungarian poetry and musical works of the 20th-21st century. According to the jury of the “Poetry Festival” 2019: “- listening to you is a real journey through time!” They work with various guest artists, both musicians and actors, so the size of the cast is flexible.

Katalin Tarnai was born in 1985 in Hungary. She studied at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, at the Faculty of Arts – University of Pécs and in Miskolc. She obtained her diploma as classical singer and voice teacher. She also studied acting. She took a position as a singer in the Grammy Award-winning Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir then participated in the projects of the EuropaChorAkademie in Germany. She worked under the leadership of such conductors as Daniel Reuss, Frieder Bernius, Kaspars Putnins, Sylvain Cambreling. Sang contemporary music as a soloist with the members of the Klangforum Wien, and was inspired by a personal conversation with Ton Koopman, who shaped her attitude towards baroque music and being a performer. As a soloist and choir artist, she gave concert in Austria, Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium, she also sang on the stage of the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She gained experience in all styles from medieval to contemporary classical music, from unaccompanied acapella to great orchestra accompanied genres. She is deeply interested in medieval, renaissance and baroque vocal music. She is working as a vocal teacher in Budapest.

Anna Heibl was born in 1985 in Hungary. She studied piano at the University of Szeged, then graduated at the faculty of Early Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München where she studied harpsichord and early keyboard instruments with Andreas Staier and Christine Schornsheim. She took her Master degree in historical performing practice (harpsichord) at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität Linz in the class of Jörg Halubek and Anne Marie Dragosits. She participated in the courses of Miklós Spányi, Marieke Spaans, Ketil Haugsand, Robert Levin, Elisabeth Joyé, Beatrice Martin and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. In 2012 she was finalist of the 1st Fritz-Neumeyer-Fortepiano Competition in Bad Krozingen. She participates in various chamber music formations as an accompanist. She gave concerts in Germany, Austria, Finland, Belgium, Poland, England, Czech Republic, Russia and the Netherlands. She performed several times with the Zoltán Kodály Youth Orchestra, Landeskapelle Eisenach, Concierto München, English Garden Consort and Euridicé Barokkorchester. As a soloist she played with the Kecskemét Symphony Orchestra and Szeged Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 she founded the Early Music Ensemble LavioLa. Currently she is a piano and harpsichord teacher at the Kodály School in Kecskemét.