Sonya Yoncheva

Superstar soprano Sonya Yoncheva has been heralded as one of the most acclaimed and exciting performers of her generation.

After studying piano and voice in her hometown Plovdiv with Nelly Koitcheva, she obtained her master’s degree in voice in Geneva, studying with Danielle Borst. Sonya is an alumna of William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix. She is the winner of Operalia (2010) was honored as the Newcomer of the Year at the 2015 ECHO Klassik Awards with the 2019 Readers’ Award of The International Opera Awards.

Career highlights include new productions of Tosca and Otello at the Metropolitan Opera, where she also performed the title roles of Luisa Miller, La traviata and Iolanta, Mimì in La bohème and Gilda in Rigoletto; the title parts of Norma (new production) and La traviata, Marguerite in Faust, Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Micaëla in Carmen, Mimì and Musetta in La bohème at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; Il pirata (new staging) and La bohème (Mimì) at Teatro alla Scala; L’incoronazione di Poppea (new production) at the Salzburg Festival; new stagings of Médée and La traviata at the Staatsoper Berlin; and of Don Carlos, La bohème and Iolanta at the Paris Opéra, where she also appeared in La traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor.

She recently sang Tosca at the Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper and Staatsoper Berlin, La traviata and Siberia at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, Médée at Staatsoper Berlin, La bohème (Mimì) at Covent Garden, Il pirata at the Teatro Real Madrid, Otello in Baden-Baden and Berlin, Iolanta and Otello at the Met; participated in the 2020 season opening gala of the Teatro alla Scala, starred in a Met Stars Live in Concert recital streamed from the Schussenried Monastery, in a Christmas concert hosted by the German President and broadcast on German television, in the Rolex Perpetual Music Gala in Berlin, in the 2020 Concert de Paris as well as in galas and solo concerts in Salzburg, Madrid, Monte-Carlo, Budapest, Mexico City, Verona and Antwerp.

Scheduled for the 2021/2022 season are her title role debuts in Manon Lescaut (Staatsoper Hamburg), Anna Bolena (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris), La Gioconda and Fedora (Teatro alla Scala). She will also appear in the title parts of Tosca at Opernhaus Zürich, Iolanta with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin and at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Siberia at Teatro Real and Norma at Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona. At the Met, Sonya will sing a recital and Élisabeth de Valois in a new Don Carlos, at the Staatsoper Berlin a recital and Mimì in La bohème, while other solo concerts and recitals will lead her to Paris (Salle Gaveau), Aarhus (Symfonisk Sal), Geneva (Victoria Hall), Athens (Greek National Opera), Barcelona (Palau de la Músca and Gran Teatre del Liceu), Milan (La Scala), Vienna (Konzerthaus), Brussels (Bozar) and Berlin (Philharmonie).

Sonya Yoncheva records exclusively for Sony Classical, where her solo albums Paris, mon amour, Handel, The Verdi Album and Rebirth have been published and is a global ambassador for Rolex.