Soloist
Sophie Rennert
In addition to violin and piano lessons, the Austrian mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert began her vocal training with her mother, the soprano and vocal teacher Sigrid Rennert. In 2014, she graduated with honours from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Karlheinz Hanser and Charles Spencer. She attended masterclasses with Brigitte Fassbaender, Ann Murray and Helmut Deutsch.
In 2013, Sophie Rennert was a member of the »Young Singers Project« at the Salzburg Festival. 2014‒2016 she was a member of the ensemble of Konzert Theater Bern. In 2017/2018 she was selected for the »Great Talents« series at the Wiener Konzerthaus. Since 2022, she has been a member of the ensemble at Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, where she has performed as Charlotte (»Werther«), Cherubino (»Le nozze di Figaro«), Rosina (»Il barbiere di Siviglia«), Dorabella (»Così fan tutte«), Second Lady (»Die Zauberflöte«), Angelina (»La Cenerentola«), Hänsel (»Hänsel und Gretel«), Piacere (»Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno«), Prince Orlofsky (»Die Fledermaus«), Ruggiero (»Alcina«) and in the title role in »Carmen«.
Guest engagements have taken her to Berlin with the Akademie für Alte Musik, to Paris and Amsterdam with Les Accents, to London with the Academy of Ancient Music and back to Innsbruck with the Accademia Bizantina. Most recently, she performed the title role in Vidaldi’s »Juditha Triumphans« at the Festwochen der Alten Musik in Innsbruck and sang Schumann’s »Das Paradies und die Peri« under Hartmut Haenchen in Utrecht, Phèdre in Rameau’s »Hippolyte et Aricie« under Bernhard Forck at the Nationaltheater Mannheim and Second Lady (»Die Zauberflöte«) at the Salzburg Festival.
Sophie Rennert has performed with Martin Haselböck in Grafenegg and the Vienna Musikverein, at the Vienna Konzerthaus, with Jordi Savall at the Styriarte, with Ottavio Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina, with Rubén Dubrovsky and the Bach Consort Vienna. She sang in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestre de Monte Carlo and regularly gives recitals with Helmut Deutsch, Graham Johnson and Joseph Middleton at the Schubertiade, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall, the Brucknerhaus Linz and the Zeist Festival. Her repertoire spans all eras, styles and genres, from Bach’s »Weihnachtsoratorium« in Gothenburg to Mozart’s »Requiem« with the Orquesta Nacional de España in Madrid and the Missa Solemnis in Birmingham to the CD recording »Von den Göttern weiß ich nichts« with contemporary vocal works by Uli Rennert. She performed the title role in Handel’s »Lotario« at the Göttingen Handel Festival, the role of Andronico in Vivaldi’s »Tamerlano« with the ensemble Les Accents in Dortmund, Piacere in »Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno« with the Accademia Bizantina, Idamante in »Idomeneo« at the Salzburg Landestheater, Angelina in »La Cenerentola« at the Mannheim National Theatre and Flower Girl in »Parsifal« at the Bayreuth Festival through to Harper Pitt in »Angels in America« at the Neue Oper Wien.
She has worked with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz under conductors such as David Afkham, Ivor Bolton, Semyon Bychkov, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Ádám Fischer, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Hartmut Haenchen, Philippe Jordan, Alessandro de Marchi, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Marc Piollet and Andreas Spering. Her discography also includes Handel’s »Dixit Dominus« and Ferrandini’s »Il pianto di Maria« with Il Giardinello on Passacaille, Brahms songs accompanied by Graham Johnson on hyperion as well as a recording of Vivaldi’s »Tamerlano« with the Accademia Bizantina under Ottavio Dantone on naïve classique, Leopold Mozart’s »Missa Solemnis« with the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie and Handel’s »Lotario« from Göttingen.
Sophie Rennert won 2nd prize and the audience prize at the 7th International Cesti Competition for Baroque Singing in Innsbruck in 2016 and was a prizewinner at the Salzburg International Mozart Competition.