Rita Theresa Maria Zopf, Biography
Rita Theresa Maria Zopf was born at the 6th of September 1989 in Oberpullendorf in Austria. She grew up in Graz, Austria, with two older brothers. There, she had her formal education at the Rudolph Steiner School and BORG Dreierschützengasse.
Thanks to her brother, who went on to become a professional guitar player, she entered the world of classical music at a young age. Her parents had influence as well, as culture and music was highly valued in her household. She started studying recorder at the Johan-Joseph-Fux-Konsevatorium at age 7, singing in a choir in the Grazer Dom at 8 and studying piano at 9. She had many amazing teachers, like in recorder Mag. Astrid Horn and Eva Maria Hoffelner, who also gave her the opportunity to study with still one of the most important musical influences in her life Petr Zejfart in Parma, Italy. Very important for her growth as a musician and on a personal level, was her time spent in the choir with trips to Lyon and Köln and its conductor, Josef Doeller.
After her Abitur she went on to study recorder for music school teachers (Instrumental- und Gesangspädagogik) at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz with the main teacher Professor Robert Finster. During her time there she had a life changing masterclass with Carsten Eckert, who was teaching at the time in Bern, Switzerland. Still, she wasn’t yet sure of her professional future and tried after her Bachelor degree in 2013 some singing and acting, before going back to recorder again and starting first in 2015 her Konzertfach Bachelor in Graz and then in 2016 at the Consevatorium van Amsterdam in the class of Jorge Isaac.
Other influential figures during the time were in Graz her side subject piano teacher Janna Polyzoides, her harpsichord teacher Eugene Michelangeli and her singing teacher Anna Portika. In masterclasses the recorder teachers Matthias Weilenmann and Rahel Stoellger, and for baroque dance Bernd Niedeken. In Amsterdam she had various inspiring guest teachers like Erik Bosgraaf, Hester Groenleer and María Martínez Ayerza of the Royal Wind Music, Michael Form, Walter van Hauwe, Kees Boeke and Dorothee Oberlinger, influential teachers in side subjects like in singing Geert Berghs, in harmony and solfege Vincent van den Bijlaard, in historical harmony Johan Hofman and in harpsichord Tilman Gey.
Her most important concert partner till today is her brother Georg Zopf, a professional guitar player who started in 2017 to study the lute in Vienna. Additional, there have been various important musical collaborative relationships with musicians like her former recorder colleague Martin Bolterauer, her present colleague the composer Frieda Gustav, the recorder players Johanna Boehm and Paul Schauenburg, the traverso flutists Alberto Piovesan and Martí Santacana, the lutist Manou Schreiner and outside of the school the dancer Rachel Farr and the gamba player Julie Stalder.
She was also lucky enough to have had lessons outside of the scholar system with Thomas List, Luciano Contini and Leo Witoszynskyj. Other important musical as well as personal influencers were the violinist Ofir Shner, and the pianists Maurits Koelmans and Andrea Szewieczek.
