About
A renowned figure in the world of Baroque music, French soprano Sandrine Piau performs regularly with such celebrated conductors as William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Christophe Rousset, Gustav Leonhardt, Sigiswald Kuijken, Ton Koopman, René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski, Fabio Biondi, Michel Corboz, Josep Pons and Louis Langrée.
Ms Piau embraces both the lyric and Baroque repertoire, and performs roles such as Pamina from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Titania from Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Servilia from Gluck's La Clemenza di Tito.
Previous engagements have taken her to the Grand Théâtre de Genève to perform the role of Ismène in Mitridate, Re di Ponto. She has also been to the Théâtre des Champs Elysées to sing Pamina, Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito and Aennchen in Weber's Der Freischütz. At the Théâtre du Châtelet, she was Ismène, Nerine in Rameau's Les Paladins and Wanda in Offenbach's La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein.
Ms Piau has been invited by the Opéra National de Bordeaux to sing Titania, the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari to sing Pamina, the Opéra de Montpellier, theDresden Festival to sing in Handel's Xerxes (Rousset/Hampe), the Drottningholm Festival to sing Asteria in Handel's Tamerlano (Rousset/Audi), the Bayersiche Staatsoper and Opéra National de Bordeaux to sing Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
Recent opera projects include singing Donna Anna and Atalanta at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Nanetta (Falstaff) at Grand Théatre de Bordeaux, , Sophie in Massenet's Werther at both the Capitole de Toulouse and the Théâtre du Châtelet., both Pamina and Cleopatra at La Monnaie in Brussels and Titania at the Opera National de Lyon…
Ms. Piau appears regularly in concert. In recent years she has performed at the Salzburg Festival, Covent Garden Festival and Montreux Festival, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro Communale in Florence, Teatro Communale di Bologna, and with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris.
Sandrine Piau takes great pleasure in the art of recital. As a singer of both French and German repertoire, she has performed with many renowned recital accompanists, such as Jos van Immerseel, Myung-Whun Chung, Georges Pludermacher, Roberto Negri, Billy Eidi, David Selig, Christian Ivaldi, Alexandre Tharaud, Jérôme Hantaï and Corine Durous. Recital appearances include Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, The Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall, New York.
Ms Piau has an exclusive recording contract with the record company Naïve. Her disc of Mozart Arias, accompanied by the Freiburger Barockorchester met with an extremely enthusiastic critical response and was awarded the Prix Charles Cros. Her second album on the Naïve label, Debussy Mélodies, accompanied by Jos van Imserseel, was awarded the 'Prix Ravel' at the Orphée Awards in Paris. Handel's Arias Seria with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques was awarded Editor's Choice by Gramophone in January 2005 and won the Stanley Sadie Handel Recording Prize 2005.
In 2008, she released a Franco-German recital programme entitled Evocations based on texts making reference to women in the third person. It was again awarded Editors Choice by Gramophone and 'Diamant d'Opéra' by Opera Magazine. Ms. Piau gave her Carnegie Hall debut recital based on this disc. The New York Times wrote 'superb French soprano sang with a clear and deeply expressive voice, nuanced phrasing and immaculate control'. This recital was followed by a series of recitals across Europe.
2009 saw two new Handel recordings in her continued collaboration with Naïve; the first an eclectic selection of duets with the contralto Sara Mingardo; and the second, Between Heaven and Earth, met with popular and critical acclaim (MIDEM Classical Album of the Year 2010).
In 2010/2011, Sandrine Piau sang in L'Incoronazione di Poppea (title-role) in Köln, La Finta Giardiniera (Sandrina) at la Monnaie in Brussels and gave several recitals including Wigmore Hall. She also released a disc of lieder and French melodies called Après un Rêve which is her second collaboration with the pianist Susan Manoff.
Her future engagements include singing Pamina at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysée, a recital tour in the USA as well as in Japan for the first time of her career.
Sandrine Piau's star is on the rise. Hers is the bewitching soprano from the hit film HOME. Recently Sandrine was awarded the 'Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' from the French Ministry of Culture and 2009 she received the 'Opera Singer of the Year' award at Les Victoires de la Musique awards.