The German soprano, Viola Michalski, grew up in Düsseldorf in a family of musicians. She gained her first experience on a large opera stage at the age of 9, when she sang the role of the shepherd in Tosca (Puccini) at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. She started playing the cello at the age of 6, later she also learned horn and piano. In 2013 she began studying music education at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden; two years later she switched to singing in the class of Professor Schmidt-Krahmer. She received important impulses during her studies in the Lied class from Olaf Bär and from Britta Schwarz in the oratorio area.
Singing in an ensemble is an integral part of her artistic work; Viola Michalski sings regularly in various ensembles such as the Dresdner Kammerchor (Director: Hans-Christoph Rademann), the Sächsisches Vocalensemble (Director: Matthias Jung) and the Orpheus Vokalensemble. From 2018 to 2019, she was able to gain valuable experience as part of an internship at the MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig. There she took part in concerts conducted by Marek Janowski, Paul McCreesh and Andris Nelsons, among others. She has also been challenged in many ways as a soloist. For example, she sang in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, in the Nikolaisaal in Potsdam and in the Freiberg Dom.
In the summer of 2019 Viola Michalski performed for the first time at the Serkowitzer Volksoper, in October of the same year she could be heard in a Liedsoiree at the Semperoper. She was also seen as Papagena in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte as part of the Lichterfestes at the Landesbühnen Sachsen.
From October 2020, Viola Michalski studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock in the singing class of Nikolay Borchev and in the Lied class of Professor Karola Theill. In July 2021, together with the pianist Zifang Yu, she won 2nd prize as a Lied duo at the HMT-Musikpreis. In both 2021 and 2022 she was one of the selected students who were allowed to present themselves at the Musikfestspielen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Landow (Rügen). She completed her master's degree in July 2022 with top marks.
Viola Michalski has been working in the cultural mediation/dramaturgy department of the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen since September 2022. |