About Me

Biography

Described as a ‘superb singer actress’ (Opera Today), Anglo-Venezuelan soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez is a Kathleen Ferrier semi-finalist, a Josephine Baker Trust artist, a Sybil Tutton Award holder (2022) and a recipient of the Musicians’ Company Award (2023). She is a Young Artist on the National Opera Studio’s (NOS) Global Talent Programme.

 

Operatic roles include Elle La Voix Humaine, Adina Elisir d’Amore, Papagena Die Zauberflöte and World premieres of works by Jasper Dommett, Marco Galvani and Toby Young. Concert work comprises Handel’s Messiah (Nevill Holt 2022), Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (Birmingham Cathedral, MAC Birmingham), Mahler’s 4th Symphony, Monteverdi’s Vespers (Cadogan Hall), Vivaldi’s Gloria and Handel’s Dixit Dominus (Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford). She made her Wigmore debut in September 2023 as part of their 2023 French Song Exchange.

 

Having begun her musical studies with the violin in El Sistema in Caracas (Venezuelan), she later started playing the piano, continuing both instruments in the Périgueux Conservatoire. Sofia studied Music at Oxford University and Vocal Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, where she graduated with a distinction and was supported by Rotary International. Sofia was a Huffner Scholar supported by the Sir Gordon Palmer Scholarship in the Royal College of Music Opera School and is a winner of the RCM’s Concerto Competition (2021).

 

Future engagements include covering Karolka for ENO's Jenufa (March 2024) and the role of Musetta for Longborough Festival Opera’s La Bohème (Jul/Aug 2024).

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Full body – Sofia Kirwan-Baez (Hello Gorgeous Photoshoot)

'Sizzled and enticed'

- GScene Magazine | Brighton Early Music Festival Live! Scheme 2020

REPERTOIRE

OPERA

Performed Roles

Roles:

* cover role

  • Musetta (La Bohème | Longborough Festival Opera | 2024)
  • Karolka* (Jenufa | English National Opera | 2024)
  • Eurydice* (L’Orfeo | Longborough Festival Opera | 2023)
  • Adina (1 show), Giannetta (The Elixir of Love | Wild Arts 2023)
  • Le feu, Le Rossignol (L’Enfant et les sortilèges | RCM 2023)
  • Fata azzurra (Bella dormente nel bosco | RCM 2023)
  • Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld | RCM 2022)
  • Tina (Flight | RCM 2022)
  • Sandmann (Hansel & Gretel | RCM 2022)
  • Lady Mary (South Sea Bubble by Nick Bicât – premiere | Cantata Dramatica 2022)
  • Elle (La Voix Humaine | OSO Arts Centre 2021, 2022)
  • Papagena (Die Zauberflöte | RCM Opera 2021)
  • Adina (Elixir d’amore | Festival Lyrique d’Excideuil 2021)
  • Miss Price (Coram Boy by Jasper Dommett – premiere | RWCMD Atmospheres Festival 2021)
  • Venus (La Daphne | Brighton Early Music Festival Live! 2020)
  • Chorus (Dead Man Walking | WNO 2019)
  • Emma (Witch! by Toby Young – premiere | Oxford Music Faculty Opera 2018)
  • Annalyn Kurtz 3 (Autopilot saves Model S by Marco Galvani – premiere | Faded Ink Productions 2017)
  • Cissie Woodgers (Albert Herring | St Peter’s College Oxford 2016)
  • Juno & Chorus (Fairy Queen | Theatron Novum 2016)

ORATORIO

& concert work

Soprano soloist in:

  • 'Simple Gifts' recital with the National Opera Studio (Wigmore Hall 2024)
  • Handel's Messiah - semi-staged (Wild Arts 2023)
  • Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Mayfield Festival Choir 2023)
  • Leo Geyer's London Portraits (Constella Music | Sadler's Wells 2023)
  • 'Tell me the truth about love' (Oxford International Song Festival 2023)
  • Wigmore Hall's French Song Exchange 2023
  • Fauré Requiem (Putney Choral Society 2022)
  • The Messiah (Nevill Holt Opera Associate Artist Scheme 2022)
  • Bach’s Trauerode BWV 198 (City Music Foundation with Adrian Butterfield 2022)
  • Monteverdi’s Vespers (Thames Philharmonic Choir at Cadogan Hall 2022)
  • Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (Ripieno Players 2022 & 2023)
  • Handel's Dixit Dominus & Vivaldi's Gloria (Schola Cantorum in Christ Church Cathedral 2022)
  • Mahler 4 (Ripieno Players 2017 & Leamington Sinfonia 2021)
  • Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb (Clevedon Choral Society 2019)
  • Stravinski’s Pulcinella (Ripieno Players 2018)
  • Vivaldi’s Gloria (Bloxham School 2018)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Regular Recitalist (St Sulpice d’Excideuil, France 2016-Present)

OTHER

Song, Contemporary & Jazz

  • Soprano soloist for recording of previously unrecorded Paul Bowles (1910-1999) songs – album to be released in 2024
  • Leo Geyer's London Portraits (Constella Music | Sadler's Wells 2023)
  • Release of debut album of own songs (self-accompanied), Take One and a Half (2021)
  • Piano lounge performer since 2018 (Sandy's Piano Bar, Oxford | The Marriott, Cardiff | The Four Seasons, Florence | The Savoy*, London | The Dorchester*, London | Fortnum & Mason's, London | OSO Arts Centre, London)
    *managed by Molto Music