VALDA WILSON
soprano
Valda Wilson, a native of Sydney, Australia, has already garnered international attention on the opera and concert stages of her homeland and Europe.
Currently, she is enjoying great success on the opera stage at the Saarländisches Staatstheater in Germany, where she has been a member of the ensemble since 2017. Her roles so far included Fiordiligi, Musetta, Violetta, Marschallin, Marguerite, Sylva Varescu, Contessa, Hanna Glawari, Élisabeth de Valois Josepha Vogelhuber (Im weißen Rössl), Leonora (Il trovatore), Rosalinde, Micaëla as well as the title roles in Alcina and Ophelia (world premiere opera by Sarah Nemtsov). In 2023-24, she will make her role debut as the title character in Suor Angelica.
Last season, guest performances brought her to the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen (Helmwige in Die Walküre) and the New National Theater Tokyo (Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice). She also appeared as Romilda (Xerxes) at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, as Iole (Herkules) at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, as Vitellia at the Theater Ulm and as an ensemble member at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater (2014-2016), she sang, Alice Ford, Julia de Weert (Der Vetter aus Dingsda), Romilda, Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Mrs. Naidoo (Satyagraha), Hanna Glawari, and Contessa Almaviva. In 2016 she also received the audience award from the Volksbühne Oldenburg. Other highlights of her opera career included her debuts in Italy at the Teatro di San Carlo, in Switzerland at the Verbier Festival, and in Austria with the Oper Klosterneuburg. In Australia, she sang in several productions of Pinchgut Opera Sydney, Australia’s only company dedicated to Baroque opera and vocal music.
As a concert singer, she has performed with numerous important orchestras, most recently with the Bremer Philharmoniker (Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido and Ninth, New Year’s Concerts), the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker (R. Strauss Lieder, Beethoven’s Ninth), the Sinfonieorchester Aachen (film music), the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen (Purcell and Handel), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under Marko Letonja (Beethoven’s Ninth), the Cappella Aquileia under Marcus Bosch (Beethoven’s Ninth and The Ruins of Athens), the Münchner Symphoniker (Carmina Burana), the Sächsische Staatskapelle (Mahler Lieder), the Ulmer Philharmoniker (opera gala), and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (Fauré’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth). Upcoming is a concert with the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie (R. Strauss’ Four Last Songs, Mahler’s Fourth).
Further concert highlights were with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (Liszt’s Graner Mass), a European tour with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, both under Philippe Herreweghe, Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with the Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester, Carmina Burana at Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, concert arias by Mozart with the Hallé Orchestra under Markus Stenz, and Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 with the London Cello Orchestra touring Switzerland and South Korea. In addition, she was chosen by Richard Bonynge to be the only featured soloist at the Westminster Abbey memorial service for Dame Joan Sutherland with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, under Sir Antonio Pappano.
Valda Wilson initially trained at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where in 2008 she won the Opera Foundation Australia’s scholarship to the National Opera Studio London. In 2010, she was invited to join the Young Ensemble at the venerable Dresden Semperoper, in 2012 she won the international “Stella Maris” Competition and in that same year became a member of the Young Singers Project at the Salzburger Festspiele.
