The Greek contralto, Sophia Patsi, was born in a family of musicians. She obtained her Bachelors degree in Classical Singing and Opera with Grade:10 and First Prize at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki in 2009 in the class of the bass, Nikos Kapetas. Passionate and dedicated to the art of singing she decided to continue her studies abroad starting with Germany where she studied as an Erasmus student for a semester with Professor Cheryl Studer at the Hochshule fur Musik, Wurzburg and later, in 2009, in the Netherlands where she had lessons with Roberta Alexander, Charlotte Riedijk and Carolyn Watkinson. She followed coachings and master-classes with Margreet Honig, Richard Egarr, Lilian Watson, Rosa Domínguez, Emma Kirkby, David Catalunya, John Dawson, Ghena Dimitrova, Edith Mathis, Claron McFadden. Currently she continues her studies in the Master Program of the Early Music Department of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the class of Xenia Meijer and Maarten Koningsberger.
In 2005 Sophia Patsi was awarded with the 1st prize in the 21st National Singing Competition in Greece; in 2009 she was a finalist in the international Maria Callas Grand Prix, and in April 2010 she won the audience prize at the Prix d'Harmonie competition in Rotterdam, Netherlands. For the period 2009-2011 she was a K. Kyriacopoulos scholar (National Opera of Greece) and in 2013-2014 she was scholasr of the Sweelinck Fonds.
Equally at home with both early and later repertoire, Sophia Patsi has had performances and solo recitals in Holland, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria collaborating with conductors such as Sigiswald Kuijken, Richard Egarr, Teunis van der Zwart, Menno van Delft, Alfredo Bernardini, Kabanis Samaras, Friedrich Grueber, Patrick van der Linden, Gijs Leenaars, Geert van den Dungen, Iason Marmaras, Vasilis Papakonstantinou etc.
A versatile young singer, acclaimed for her "rich and velvety low register", Sophia Patsi will appear in the 2014-2015 season in international festivals such as the Festival d' Ambronay singing the alto solo in W.A. Mozart's Requiem under the baton of Leonardo García-Alarcón and the Ljubljana Early Music Festival performing Spanish and Latin American Baroque as the mezzo-soprano of the ensemble Seconda Pratica. |