|
The Romanian mezzo-soprano, Roxana Constantinescu, was a member of the Romanian Radio Children's Choir, and in 2001 received a prize at the Competion Jugend und Musik (Youth and Music) in Vienna. She studied singing at the National University of Music in Bucharest and graduated in 2003 as valedictorian, class of Professor Maria Slătinaru Nistor. However, still in 2002 she made her debut at the Opera in Bucharest, with the role of Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana. She received THE Erasmus scholarship to study at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, where she studied with Professors Curt Malm (scenic interpretation) and Walter Moore (Lied technique), among others. Since 2003, she continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich with Professor Dr. Edith Wiens, Professor Juliane Banse and Helmut Deutsch. She was a a member of Bayerische Theaterakademie (Bavarian Theatre Academy) and obtained for the academic year 2004-2005 the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst scholarship (German Academic Exchange). Since 2005, she was scholar of the Yehudi Menuhin foundation in the "Live Music Now". In 2004, she took the third prize at the International Singing Competition Tito Schipa in Italy. Other awards she obtained in 2005, Concours de Chant Verviers (Belgium), and in Romania she won Competitions Ionel Perlea and Mihail Jora. Under International Music Competition organized in 2006 by Radio of Munich (ARD), she won the second prize at the Lied vocal symphonic (first prize was not awarded), one of the four sections competition with prizes of 80 thousand euros. Also in September 2006, she won at the International Singing Competition Helga und Paul Hohe held in Köln - 1st Prize and Audience Award, worth 11,500 euros.
Hailed by the international press as a “world-class coloratura mezzo-soprano, where from her rich lower register, reminiscent of a vintage port wine, to her radiant top her singing is seamless and her acting, too, is remarkably accomplished” (Star Tribune), Roxana Constantinescu is renowned for the complexity of her musicianship, her ability to approach differing styles with the same beauty, commitment and honesty.
From 2007 to 2010, Roxana Constantinescu was a soloist of the Wiener Staatsoper. Major debuts with the company were in the roles of Rosina, Cherubino, Zerlina, Nicklausse, Lola, Fjodor and Stéphano to name but a few. She has appeared as a guest in various opera houses making highly acclaimed debuts at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in Manon Lescaut and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in a new production of W.A. Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. She has returned to the Wiener Staatsoper and the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, role which she also performed at the New National Theatre Tokyo. She appeared twice with the Los Angeles Opera in the roles of Despina in Cosi fan tutte and Zerlina W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, sang Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann in a new production of Theater an der Wien, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte and Fatime in Oberon at the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, the title role Angelina in La Cenerentola at the Minnesota Opera and the Romanian National Opera Bucharest, while returning to Minnesota Opera for her role debut as Charlotte in Werther.
Roxana Constantinescu has appeared with some of the foremost conductors of her time: Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti, Fabio Luisi, James Conlon, Helmuth Rilling, Gustavo Dudamel, Kirill Petrenko, Graeme Jenkins, Sir Neville Marriner, Jeffrey Tate, Daniel Oren, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Peter Schneider, Asher Fisch, Bertrand de Billy, Franz Welser-Möst, Manfred Honeck, Marco Armiliato, Riccardo Frizza and with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, among others.
Roxana Constantinescu's love for art song was in evidence in recitals at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Musikverein Vienna, Abbaye de Lessay and Goethe’s House. She has recorded for Hänssler Classic, OEHMS Classics, SWR, CSO Resound, Artmode Records, Weltbild and Carus Verlag. A cd recording of Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella under the baton of Pierre Boulez was nominated in 2011 for the Grammy Music Awards.
Last season’s (2014-2015) notable engagements have included successful debuts at the Zürich Opera House and Teatro la Fenice as Adalgisa in Norma, at the Israeli Opera as Fenena (Nabucco) and the Opera Royal de Versailles as Emira in a new production of Siroe, followed by concerts in Theater an der Wien, Budapest, Bucharest, Calgary and her return at the Oregon Bach Festival.
Her 2015-2016 plans include Johann Adolf Hasse’s Siroe in concert performances at the famous Tchaikovsky Concert Hall Moscow, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Krakow Congress Center, house debuts at the Ópera de Oviedo in the role of Cherubino in W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and at the National Center of Performing Arts Beijing in Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a return at Teatro La Fenice as Adalgisa in Norma, first appearances in Konzerthaus Berlin with J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245), at the Grafenegg Festival with George Frideric Handel's Messiah and the Verbier Festival with Verdi’s Falstaff as well as a return at the L.A. Philharmonic with W.A. Mozart's Requiem. She currently lives in Vienna, Austria. |
