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 Jenufa for English National Opera and the role of Musetta for Longborough Festival Opera’s La Bohème (Jul/Aug 2024).

 

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Roles

  • 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)

* cover role