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The Swiss mezzo-soprano, Sonja Leutwyler, received her first violin lessons at age 5 and later moved to viola. With both instruments, she has won awards (including at the Swiss Youth Music Competition and the Orpheus Award). She studied with Michel Rouilly viola at the Conservatory of Zürich. At the same time she began her singing studies. For four years, she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich in the singing class of Maria de Francesca-Cavazza and received her opera diploma in September 2007 in the class of Wolfgang Brendel. She also attended the oratorio class of Christian Gerhaher and the Lied class of Helmut Deutsch. She also is a member of the Bayerischen Theaterakademie August Everding. She attended master-classes with Daniel Ferro, Kurt Widmer, Bodil Gumoes, Margreet Honig and Helena Lazarska.
As a soloist Sonja Leutwyler has performed among others with the Zürcher Kammerorchester (Zurich Chamber Orchestra) conducted by Howard Griffiths in the Tonhalle in Zürich, and with the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Bachcollegium Zürich, the Neuen Hofkapelle München and the Münchner Symphoniker. Sshe also sang at the Rapperswiler Schlosskonzerten, the Schlosskonzerten Salzburg, the Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch- Partenkirchen, at the Villa Betramka in Prague and at the St.Martin-in-the-Fields concert series in London.
Sonja Leutwyler gained her first stage experience at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, where she sang Larina (Eugene Onegin), Sesto (Giulio Cesare) and Zita (Gianni Schicchi) and Stella (What Next) with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, conducted by Ulf Schirmer. At the Markgräflichen Opernhaus in Bayreuth she sang the role of Galsuinde in the Baroque opera Fredegunda by Reinhard Keiser. In September 2008, she joined the Academy of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich and sang there as Mercedes (Carmen), Edith (Pirates of Pencance), Flora (La Traviata) and Suzuki (Madame Butterfly). Since October 2009 she is engaged at the same opera house, her debut as a soloist was as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) and 2nd Lady (Die Zauberflöte). Other roles there: This Carmen (Mercédès), The Pirates of Penzance (Kate), The Makropoulos (maid), Orpheus in the Underworld (Minerva). |
