Sophie Junker
Sophie Junker (born 1985) is a Belgian operatic soprano, focused on Baroque music, especially works by Handel.
Life and career
[edit]Junker, born in 1985, was first trained by her father, Stéphan Junker, a voice teacher at the Verviers conservatoire.[1] She then studied voice in Namur at the IMEP (Institut supérieur de Musique et de Pédagogie) and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.[2][3]
She achieved international recognition when she won the Handel Competition in London in 2010. In 2012 she won the international Cesti Competition of the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.[3][4][5]
Roles
[edit]- 2012: Amor in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Angers-Nantes Opéra
- 2012: Israelite Woman in Handel's Esther at the Göttingen International Handel Festival
- 2013: Galatea in Handel's Acis and Galatea at the Royal Opera of Versailles
- 2013: Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music
- 2013: Wanda in Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège
- 2013: Italian Woman in Charpentier's Médée at the English National Opera
- 2014: Caio in Vivaldi's Ottone in villa at the Copenhagen Opera Festival
- 2015: Melanto in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest
- 2015: Drusilla in Monteverdi's L’incoronazione di Poppea, Enescu Festival
- 2015: Anna Reich in Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Opéra Royal de Wallonie
- 2015: Venus in Purcell's King Arthur, Festival de Beaune
- 2015: Hélène in Chabrier's Une éducation manquée, Lafayette Opera, Washington, D.C.
- 2015: title role of Viardot's Cendrillon, Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège
- 2015: Phoebe in Rameau's Castor et Pollux, Saint John's Smith Square
- 2016: Aspasia in Handel's Alexander Balus, London Festival
- 2016: Cleis in Jean-Paul-Égide Martini's Sapho, Opera Lafayette, New York City and Washington, D.C.
- 2016: second Woman in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Opéra de Lausanne
- 2017: Proserpine and Eurydike in Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, Wigmore Hall, Den Haag
- 2017: First Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Opéra de Limoges
- 2018: Cunegonda in Vinci's Gismondo, re di Polonia, Theater an der Wien
- 2018: Elisetta in Cimarosa'a Il matrimonio segreto, Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège
- 2018: Drusilla in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Staatsoper Berlin
- 2019: Venus in Giovanni Legrenzi 's La divisione del mondo, Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, Nancy and Versailles Opéra
- 2019: Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and François Couperin's Leçons de ténèbres, in concert at the Versailles Opéra
- 2019: title role of Georg Caspar Schürmann's Die getreue Alceste, Schlosstheater Schwetzingen
- 2019: Sigismondo in Handel's Arminio, Göttingen Festival
- 2019: Amarilli in Handel's Il pastor fido, Gliwice and Handel Festival, Halle
- 2021: Angelica in Vivaldi's Orlando furioso, La Seine Musicale
- 2021: Asteria in Handel's Tamerlano, Moscow
- 2022: Cleopatre in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, touring in the Netherlands, Göttingen Festival[6]
Recordings
[edit]- 2012: Bach: Secular Cantatas vol. 2, with Bach Collegium Japan, cond: Masaaki Suzuki, BIS[2]
- 2014: Sacrifices (Filia in Carissimi's Jephte with La Nuova Musica, Harmonia Mundi
- 2016: Handel's Esther with Laurence Cummings, Accent
- 2016: Grétry's L’épreuve villageoise, Naxos[2]
- 2017: Stravaganza d'amore with Pygmalion, cond. Raphaël Pichon, Harmonia Mundi
- 2020: La Francesina, Handel's Nightingale, Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu, cond. Franck-Emmanuel Comte[7]
Awards
[edit]- 2010 First prize London Handel Competition
- 2012 First prize international competition for Baroque opera Innsbruck Cesti Competition
- 2020: Choc de Classica for La Francesina
- 2020: Diamant from Opéra Magazine for La Francesina
- 2020: Forum Opéra trophy in the category best album of the year for La Francesina
- 2021: Best Baroque vocal album of the year of International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) for La Francesina
References
[edit]- ^ Meyers, Norbert (11 August 2022). "Sophie Junker: endlich auch Prophetin im eigenen Land". GrenzEcho (in German). Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ a b c "Sophie Junker". Naxos Records. 2025. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ a b "Sophie Junker". Staatsoper Berlin. 2025. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ "Sophie Junker / Soprano". parnassus.at. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ "Sophie Junker". Opéra national du Rhin (in French). 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ "Sophie Junker, Sopran | Vorstellungen" (in German). Retrieved 2022-03-07.
- ^ Kube, Michael (4 June 2025). "Sophie Junker / Soprano". Neue Musikzeitung (in German). Retrieved 1 August 2025.
Further reading
[edit]- Berg, Karl Georg (30 November 2019). "Schwetzingen: Sophie Junker, ein aufgehender Stern am (Barock)Opernhimmel, singt im Rokokotheater". Die Rheinpfalz (in German). Retrieved 1 August 2025.
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