Kirsten Sollek

Contralto Kirsten Sollek has been named “an appealingly rich alto” by The New York Times and “an ideal Bach alto” with “elemental tone quality” by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Ms. Sollek maintains a demanding performance schedule on the concert and operatic stage. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2004 with André Thomas and the New York City Chamber Orchestra in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and added the Matthäus-Passion and several Bach cantatas with Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan, performed and recorded Haydn’s Theresienmesse, Schöpfungsmesse, and Harmoniemesse with Jane Glover and Trinity Wall Street for Naxos, Bach’s Matthäus-Passion and cantatas with Andrew Parrott and the New York Collegium, an all-Bach program with Helmuth Rilling and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Tafelmusik, Bach’s Weinachts-Oratorium with Eric Milnes and the Trinity Consort, Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater with Kent Tritle and Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, Duruflé’s Requiem with John Scott at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, and Handel’s Messiah with Bach Collegium Japan, Minnesota Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, and the Dallas Bach Society.  Festival performances include the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Boston Early Music Festival, Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, the Virginia Arts Festival, and the Carmel Bach Festival.

In 2011 Ms. Sollek covered the title role in Rinaldo for the Glyndebourne Festival.  Other opera credits include the role of Bradamante in Alcina with Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile, Juno in Semele with Music in the Somerset Hills, Beauty in Blood Rose, the Naumburg prize-winning opera by Hannah Lash (composed for Ms. Sollek), and the title role in Rape of Lucretia with the Eastman Opera Theatre.

Very active in new music as well, she has appeared at the June in Buffalo and Ojai Music Festivals performing works by Steve Reich, and has recorded The Desert Music and Tehillim with Alarm Will Sound and Music for 18 Musicians with Signal. She is featured on DVD with Alarm Will Sound’s Reich at The Roxy. Working extensively with composer John Zorn, she has performed his music in New York, Milan, Paris, Jerusalem, Warsaw, London, Rotterdam, Gent, Moers, Manchester and Adelaide.  She has collaborated with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW for performances of John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music and Louis Andriessen’s De Staat and is a founding member of Open Gate, who debuted at Weill Hall with chamber music by Gregory Mertl.