©Photo: Neda Navaee

©Photo: Andrej Grilc

©Photo: Weronika Izdebska

©Photo: Andrej Grilc

©Photo: Weronika Izdebska

©Photo: Andrej Grilc

Sarah Aristidou

Soprano

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“Sarah Aristidou as Zerbinetta is a discovery… A soprano who wins over the audience, and for whom no top note is too high.”
(Der Tagesspiegel, September 2020)

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Described by critics as ‘extraordinary’ with ‘flawless technique’, French-Cypriot soprano Sarah Aristidou is considered a rising star and has already worked with several major conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle and François-Xavier Roth. An award-winning interpreter of the evolving contemporary repertoire, she is the first ever singer to win the 2022 Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music and was also awarded the Luitpold Prize for outstanding performance by a newcomer at the 2021 Kissinger Sommer Festival. She has twice been nominated for Opernwelt’s “Best Newcomer” award, for her performances of Christian Jost’s Die arabische Nacht (2016) and Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus (2019).

In 2022/23, Aristidou makes her debut at Semperoper Dresden under Omer Meir Wellber as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos – a signature role which she debuted at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where she was originally a member of the Opera Studio, and which also served as her debut with Oper Frankfurt. Aristidou also makes her house debut at Bayerische Staatsoper, in a new production of Hosokawa’s Hanjo, before returning to Staatsoper unter den Linden as Ismene in Mozart’s Mitridate with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. In demand as a concert artist, Aristidou joins the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln twice this season in Orff’s Carmina Burana under Cristian Măcelaru and for Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre under Roderick Cox, and appears with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki.

An enthusiastic champion of new music, this season sees Aristidou with the Philharmonie Zuidnederland for Abrahamsen’s Let me tell you led by Duncan Ward, with the Staatskapelle Berlin for George Benjamin’s Mind of Fire under Finnegan Downie Dear, and performing works by Jörg Widmann at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper with Ensemble Modern. In her industrious career to date, Aristidou’s contemporary repertoire has expanded to include the world premiere of Thomas Larcher’s The Living Mountain with Asko Schönberg at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in recording with the Münchener Kammerorchester, Dallapiccola’s Ulisse with Oper Frankfurt, Lucia Rochetti’s Pinocchio with Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Thomas Larcher’s Das Jagdgewehr in co-production with Bregenzer Festspiele and Aldeburgh Festival, and Morton Feldman’s Neither with ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien at Salzburger Festspiele.

Aristidou’s interpretive skills have inspired composers to write for her, including Aribert Reimann’s Cinq fragments lyriques, which she premiered with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin led by Robin Ticciati, and Jörg Widmann’s Labyrinth IV, premiered by the Boulez Ensemble, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

On Scandinavian stages, Aristidou earned particular acclaim last season: she debuted with the Bergen Symphony Orchestra as Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, performed Ismene (Mitridate) in co-production at both the Royal Danish and Malmö operas, and she joined the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in a solo programme of Stravinsky, Delage, and Saint-Saëns with conductor Corinna Niemeyer. Further collaborations include Edgard Varèse Offrandes marking her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under François-Xavier Roth, Arnold Schӧnberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Matthias Pintscher’s With Lilies White with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks conducted by the composer himself and both Bach’s St John Passion and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Gürzenich-Orchester Köln led by Music Director François-Xavier Roth.

In 2021 Aristidou released her debut album, AETHER, on Alpha Classics, featuring a collaboration with Thomas Guggeis and the Orchester des Wandels. The album includes collaborations with Daniel Barenboim, Emmanuel Pahud and Christian Rivet in a programme which ranges from Handel to Varèse to the premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Labyrinth V.

Sarah Aristidou | Αγιά Μαρίνα

UNAUSGESPROCHEN - Gedenken an die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Maurice Ravel – Kaddisch) © onlinekas

Die Hamletmaschine, Georges Aperghis, Bas Wiegers, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Kölner Philharmonie, live April 30, 2019 © WDR

Labyrinth IV, Jörg Widmann, Daniel Barenboim, Boulez Ensemble, Pierre-Boulez Saal Berlin, live June 19 2019 © Pierre-Boulez Saal

Offrandes, Edgar Varèse, François-Xavier Roth, Berliner Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmonie, live October 26, 2019 © Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall

ÆTHER

S’Agapo

“You experience how Sarah Aristidou gracefully frames even declamatory passages, how she integrates delicately into the overall sound and yet radiates great presence.”

Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 2022

“Sarah Aristidou knew how to inspire the audience with her sensitive performance and as an encore with an a cappella performed Cypriot folksong provided another touching highlight of this full concert evening.”

Münchner Merkur, November 2022

“A most dazzling debut: soprano Sarah Aristidou makes an impact with Æther.”

(Christopher Dingle, BBC Music Magazine, January 2022)

“Her voice is strong, and very French, reminiscent at times of Denise Duval, at others of Mady Mesplé.”

(Tim Ashley, Gramophone, January 2022)

“The Widmann, with its ululations, sobs, jazz inflections and wild laughter, is something of a tour de force.”

(Tim Ashley, Gramophone, January 2022)

“On her debut CD “Æther” the singer Sarah Aristidou enchants with classic coloratura arias as well as with the boldest experiments in modern singing.”

(Juergen Kesting, Zeitung, 2022)

“Sarah Aristidou Soars through the Æther. The French-Cypriot soprano impresses with her formidable chops and utterly unique repertory.”

(Classical Voice SF, Jason Victor Serinus, 2021)

“Æther is like few other vocal recordings I’ve encountered. Far more than a showcase for Sarah Aristidou, an astounding French-Cypriot soprano with a strong voice and supremely high coloratura extension.”

(Classical Voice SF, Jason Victor Serinus, 2021)

“Through skilful sequences from one style to another without any stylistic shock, the award-winning and acclaimed young artist on the European scene ”etherizes” the space and time between her and us, in a sort of symbiosis guided by the meaning of the chosen pieces, their musical interest, their emotional significance and her extraordinary talent for communication.”

(PAN M 360, Frederic Cardin, 2021)

“Sarah Aristidou deploys a fine and agile soprano, capable of the most remarkable expressive impulses and the most subtle whispers.”

(PAN M 360, Frederic Cardin, 2021)

“Simply outstanding.”

(PAN M 360, Frederic Cardin, 2021)

“The French Cypriot soprano Sarah Aristidou presents her first album and can rightly do so immediately alongside names such as Daniel Barenboim, Emmanuel Pahud and Christian Rivet.”

(Knopskaya, Cultuur Pakt, 2021)

“A strong vocal personality with which we will have to reckon.”

(Jacques Bonnaure, Classica, 2021)

“The saving grace of this concert performance, in the bare-bones setting of Salzburg’s Collegiate church, was the polish and shimmer of the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien’s playing and the purity of Sarah Aristidou’s voice.”

(Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times, August 2021)

“Neither can only succeed if a soprano like Sarah Aristidou is performing the work, who not only manages the difficult vocal part, but charges it with expression and sensitivity.”

(Kleinezeitung August 2021)

“Sarah Aristidou performed a tremendous, powerful performance in one of the boldest and most difficult coloratura arias in the opera literature, floating effortlessly to the highest heights.”

(Frankfurter Neue Presse, June 2021)

“Sarah Aristidou is the lone guest singer in the production. In the high-flying coloratura role of Zerbinetta, her vocal fireworks are impressive and, thanks to her technical proficiency, express more than mere virtuosity. When her Zerbinetta confides in the Composer (Claudia Mahnke) about her loneliness, Aristidou’s phrases are somehow ebullient, yet sorrowful, as though her vocal leaps and tumbles both expose and shield Zerbinetta’s broken heart.”

(Opera Canada, June 2021)

“Sarah Aristidou represented Zerbinetta as if she were herself: a self-confident woman of today.”

(FrankfurterRundschau, June 2021)

“Soprano Sarah Aristidou shines in the title role [of Pinocchio], singing, shaping, expressing and miming equally convincingly.”

(PETER P. PACHL, NEUE MUSIKZEITUNG, FEBRUARY 2021)

“Sarah Aristidou as Zerbinetta is a discovery… A soprano who wins over the audience, and for whom no top note is too high.”

(SYBILL MAHLKE, DER TAGESSPIEGEL, SEPTEMBER 2020)

“Aristidou embodied a spirited and energetic Zerbinetta with a gorgeous stage presence. With safe highs and flawless technique, she was absolutely up to the role despite her young age…”

(PHILLIP RICHTER, DAS OPERNMAGAZIN, SEPTEMBER 2020)

“Sarah Aristidou embodies the role of Maïma with her lyrical, unexpectedly bright and extremely clear soprano.”

(Franziska Stürz, BR Klassik Radio Podcast, October 2019)

“Outclassed by the exceptions of Sarah Aristidou, constantly knocking back the high Cs and beyond as the stroppy teenager Shoko.”

(Geoff Brown, The Times, June 2019)

“Sarah Aristidou as Shoko, the latter of whom managed to emote with Oscar-worthy panache, while pushing her voice into the stratosphere.”

(Hannah Nepilova, Financial Times, June 2019)

‘Sarah Aristidou fantastically mastered the role of Shoko, which reached stratospheric heights…”

(Werner M. Grimmel, Opernwelt, November 2018)

“As the scandalised daughter Shoko, Sarah Aristidou is extraordinary. Possessing a coloratura soprano of astonishing clarity and range, she remains vocally unforced and maintains quality of tone even in the most stratospheric registers.”

(Opera Magazine, October 2018)

“Hitting some alarmingly high notes with total aplomb, Sarah Aristidou sings the intense role of Misugi’s niece Shoko.”

(George Hall, The Stage, August 2018)

“In the role, Thomas Larcher wrote the most adventurous coloraturas, which the French Sarah Aristidou pulls off with breathtaking clarity and defiant energy — up to a shattering top note beyond all imagination.”

(Katharina von Glasenapp, Neue Voralberger Tageszeitung, August 2018)

“Sarah Aristidou captures the adolescent rage of Shoko while mastering Larcher’s virtuosic demands.”

(Rebecca Schmid, Financial Times, August 2018)

“Better yet, a superbly idiomatic Sarah Aristidou in the role of High Priestess.”

(Mehdi Mahdavi, Opera Magazine, November 2018)