Sophie Junker (born 1985) is a Belgian operatic soprano, focused on Baroque music, especially works by Handel.
Life and career Junker, born in 1985, was first trained by her father, Stéphan Junker, a voice teacher at the Verviers conservatoire. She then studied voice in Namur at the IMEP (Institut supérieur de Musique et de Pédagogie) and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
She achieved international recognition when she won the Handel Competition in London in 2010. In 2012 she won the international Cesti Competition of the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.
Roles 2012: Amor in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Angers-Nantes Opéra 2012: Israelite Woman in Handel's Esther at the Göttingen International Handel Festival 2013: Galatea in Handel's Acis and Galatea at the Royal Opera of Versailles 2013: Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music 2013: Wanda in Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège 2013: Italian Woman in Charpentier's Médée at the English National Opera 2014: Caio in Vivaldi's Ottone in villa at the Copenhagen Opera Festival 2015: Melanto in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest 2015: Drusilla in Monteverdi's L’incoronazione di Poppea, Enescu Festival 2015: Anna Reich in Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Opéra Royal de Wallonie 2015: Venus in Purcell's King Arthur, Festival de Beaune 2015: Hélène in Chabrier's Une éducation manquée, Lafayette Opera, Washington, D.C. 2015: title role of Viardot's Cendrillon, Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège 2015: Phoebe in Rameau's Castor et Pollux, Saint John's Smith Square 2016: Aspasia in Handel's Alexander Balus, London Festival 2016: Cleis in Jean-Paul-Égide Martini's Sapho, Opera Lafayette, New York City and Washington, D.C. 2016: second Woman in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Opéra de Lausanne 2017: Proserpine and Eurydike in Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, Wigmore Hall, Den Haag 2017: First Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Opéra de Limoges 2018: Cunegonda in Vinci's , Theater an der Wien 2018: Elisetta in Cimarosa'a Il matrimonio segreto, Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège 2018: Drusilla in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Staatsoper Berlin 2019: Venus in Giovanni Legrenzi 's La divisione del mondo, Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, Nancy and Versailles Opéra 2019: Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and François Couperin's Leçons de ténèbres, in concert at the Versailles Opéra 2019: title role of Georg Caspar Schürmann's Die getreue Alceste, Schlosstheater Schwetzingen 2019: Sigismondo in Handel's Arminio, Göttingen Festival 2019: Amarilli in Handel's Il pastor fido, Gliwice and Handel Festival, Halle 2021: Angelica in Vivaldi's Orlando furioso, La Seine Musicale 2021: Asteria in Handel's Tamerlano, Moscow 2022: Cleopatre in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, touring in the Netherlands, Göttingen Festival
Recordings 2012: Bach: Secular Cantatas vol. 2, with Bach Collegium Japan, cond: Masaaki Suzuki, BIS 2014: Sacrifices (Filia in Carissimi's Jephte with La Nuova Musica, Harmonia Mundi 2016: Handel's Esther with Laurence Cummings, Accent 2016: Grétry's L’épreuve villageoise, Naxos 2017: Stravaganza d'amore with Pygmalion, cond. Raphaël Pichon, Harmonia Mundi 2020: La Francesina", Handel's Nightingale", Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu, cond. Franck-Emmanuel Comte
Awards 2010 First prize London Handel Competition 2012 First prize international competition for Baroque opera Innsbruck Cesti Competition 2020: Choc de Classica for La Francesina 2020: Diamant from Opéra Magazine for La Francesina 2020: Forum Opéra trophy in the category best album of the year for La Francesina 2021: Best Baroque vocal album of the year of International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) for La Francesina
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Further reading