Soprano
After obtaining a masters degree in International Relations the Dutch Soprano Sonja Volten went on to study voice at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with Sasja Hunnego, graduating three years later with an honorary distinction. In the following two years she was part of the ensemble of the Dutch National Opera Academy. She took part in master classes with Barbara Bonney, Gabriela Araya, and Ernst Haefliger and she was a member of the Academy de Chant of the Festival d´Aix en Provence in 2006. During the season 2010-2011 she is a member of the Opera Studio at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, in collaboration with La Monnaie, under the guidance of Jose van Dam.
On the operatic stage she has sung roles such as Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, Héro in Béatrice et Bénedict, Blanche in Dialogues des Carmelites, Micaëla in La tragédie de Carmen and Princess in El gato con Botas, Second Flower Maid in Parsifal at Lyon Opera. She has worked with conductors such as Kenneth Montgomery, Jac van Steen, Henrik Schaeffer and Richard Egarr.
In addition to her operatic activities she has a big passion for lieder and concert repertoire. She has recently appeared in Osaka with the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, singing arias by W. A. Mozart conducting by A. Dumay. She has sung Ravel´s Shéhérazade with the Brabant orchestra, as well as Mahler´s 4th Symphony with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2009 she sang both Mozart's Davide Penitente as well as Mendelssohn's Sommernachtstraum with the Dortmund Philharmonik.
In 2008 she and the pianist Abigail Richards won the Vrienden Award of the Vriendenkrans Concours at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. With this award they received coaching's from many lieder specialists such as Elly Ameling, Rudolf Jansen, Helmut Deutsch, Robert Holl, Edith Wiens, Wolfram Rieger, Rudolf Piernay and Julius Drake. As a duo they perform regularly throughout Holland.
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