Slovene soprano Suzana Ograjenšek is rapidly establishing herself on both concert and opera platforms. Educated at University of Ljubljana and Cambridge University, she currently studies singing with Diane Forlano in London and has worked extensively in Baroque repertoire. In 2008 she sang at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen conducted by William Christie. Other operatic roles include Romilda in Handel’s Xerxes, Messaggiera in Monteverdi’s Orfeo (both for the Fitzwilliam Chamber Opera), and the title role in Domenico Scarlatti’s La Dirindina. Concert engagements have featured work with Christopher Hogwood (Purcell) and Ivor Bolton and the Freiburger Barockorchester (Handel’s L’Allegro at the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music) as well as regular appearances with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. Recent concert work includes Bach’s B-Minor Mass, Handel’s Foundling Hospital Anthem, Ode for St Cecilia’s Day and Salve Regina, Vivaldi’s Gloria and motetto Nulla in mondo pax sincera, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and Dona nobis pacem, and Faure’s Requiem.
Suzana has also founded and performs regularly with the Baroque Ensemble La Falsirena. Their performances with the programme of Handel’s Arcadian continuo cantatas at the Brežice Festival were highly acclaimed by the press and audience. This concert tour also took them the Handel House in London and other UK venues. In 2008, the Ensemble took part in the ‘Handel and the Divas’ exhibition at the Handel House in London with the programme of arias written for Handel’s diva Francesca Cuzzoni. Suzana’s chamber repertoire also features Haydn English songs and Lieder in duo with the pianist Matthew Schellhorn, as well as contemporary music and a recent collaboration with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet in Jeremy Thurlow’s Ancient stone at twilight.
Discography includes the release of J.K. Dolar’s Miserere with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra on the RTV Slovenia record label. Recording credits also include both Radio Slovenia and Television Slovenia. Prizes include the Williamson Prize for Musical Performance in Cambridge.
Recent engagements featured a solo recital of Handel’s chamber music at the London Handel Festival, Mozart operatic arias with RTV Slovenia Symphony orchestra in Ljubljana, further appearances at the Brežice Festival, as well as her operatic debut as Angel in Handel’s Jephtha at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, a role she reprised at the Opéra National du Bordeaux. Furthermore, she sang Valetto in L´Incoronazione di Poppea under direction of William Christie at the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Salle Pleyel in Paris and made her debut at the Theater an der Wien in the roles of Ninfa and Proserpina in Monteverdi´s L´Orfeo. She could also be be heard as soloist in concerts of Pergolesi´s Stabat Mater in Slovenia and in Monteverdi´s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda with the Empyreum Ensemble in California.
This season Suzana was invited at the London Handel Festival and the International Handel Festival in Göttingen, presenting a programme featuring cantatas by Handel and Scarlatti with the Odissea-Ensemble.
Last season she sang Scarlatti´s La Gloria di Primavera in a concert tour in California with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan, which was also recorded and was highly acclaimed. Projects this season include a Matinee-concert with the RTV Symphony Orchestra of Slowenia featuring repertoire by Gluck, Mozart and Mendelssohn,
Suzana is a Research Fellow at Cambridge University, editing Il pastor fido for the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe.
2016-2017
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