Sophie Karthäuser, soprano

Renowned worldwide as one of the finest interpreters of Mozart’s works, being called a born “Mozartian”, Sophie Karthäuser has earned such praise by singing her first ever Pamina under the baton of René Jacobs at La Monnaie and her debut Susanna led by William Christie with Opéra de Lyon. She has appeared in several other Mozart roles, such as Tamiri at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Serpetta at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Despina and Zerlina at La Monnaie and Ilia at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as well as at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with Jérémie Rhorer and to thunderous applause at the Theater an der Wien again under René Jacobs.

Notable scenic productions include the title-role in La Calisto at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées under Christophe Rousset as well as at La Monnaie under René Jacobs, a large scale Rameau project in Aix-en-Provence with William Christie and American choreographer Trisha Brown, Agathe in Der Freischütz with John Eliot Gardiner at the Opéra Comique in Paris as well as Sandrina in Mozart´s La Finta Giardinera at the Theater an der Wien with René Jacobs.

Sophie returned to La Monnaie for the part of Asteria in Handel’s Tamerlano with a revival in Amsterdam, Héro in Béatrice et Bénédicte (Berlioz), a role in which she appeared also at the 2016 edition of the Glyndebourne Festival. More recently she appeared as Pamina in La Monnaie (directed by Castellucci) and in the title role in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw.

Ever since she won the audience price at the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Sophie Karthäuser counts among the most coveted recitalists with frequent appearances in Antwerp, Lille, Nantes, Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Frankfurt, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, at the Philharmonic Halls in Berlin and Cologne as well as at New York’s Carnegie Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall, accompanied by pianists Graham Johnson, Eugene Asti, David Lively and Cédric Tiberghien. In the past seasons she charmed her audiences in recitals in Brussels, London, Oxford, Strasbourg, Cracow, Antwerp and Maastricht.

Sophie Karthäuser is an equally sought-after concert soloist and is frequently being invited by prestigious ensembles and orchestras such as Les Arts Florissants, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburger Barockorchester, Staatskapelle Dresden and the Gewandhaus Leipzig among others. Her presence on the podium on countless occasions alongside conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Thomas Hengelbrock, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Louis Langrée, Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ono, Jérémie Rohrer, Christophe Rousset and Julien Chauvin give testimony to her outstanding artistry.

Sophie Karthäuser´s recordings include a solo album of Grétry arias (awarded with Diapason découverte), Haydn’s Il Ritorno di Tobia with Andreas Spering (Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik), Mozart’s complete songs (Cypres), Mozart arias with Kazushi Ono at La Monnaie (Cypres), Handel’s Faramondo (Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros), Mozart’s La Finta Giardinera with René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi), Haendel’s Susanna (title role) with Les Arts Florissants (Virgin Classics), Pergolesi’s Septem Verba and Händel’s Orlando with René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi and Archiv), 18th century French arias with Le Concert de la Loge (Chauvin, Aparté) as well as a solo album of French songs inspired by Verlaine with Cédric Tiberghien (Cypres), a Poulenc songs album with pianist Eugene Asti (Harmonia Mundi), Wolf Lieder (Asti/ HM) and a Debussy album (Asti/ Degout/ Planès, HM). Her CD with de Lalande’s  Leçons de Ténèbres (HM) with the Ensemble Correspondances (Sébastien Daucé), highly acclaimed by the press, was awarded the Diapason d’Or 2015.

Sophie has been part of different panels in singing competitions such as the Concours International de Chant-Piano Nadia et Lili Boulanger (Paris) and the Concours Musical International Reine Elisabeth de Belgique.

Born in Belgium, Sophie Karthäuser completed her studies with Noelle Barker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.