Agnes Kovacs

The Hungarian soprano Agnes Kovacs comes from a family of musicians and has established herself particularly as a concert singer. She performs with renowned orchestras and Baroque ensembles including the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Balthasar Neumann Choir, the Berlin Philharmonic, the B’Rock Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, Le Consort, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and the Orfeo Orchestra, and has worked with conductors such as Howard Arman, Ivor Bolton, Jonathan Cohen, Iván Fischer, Nicholas McGegan, Thomas Hengelbrock, Aapo Häkkinen, Riccardo Minasi, Helmuth Rilling, Christophe Rousset, Michael Schneider, Steven Sloane and Lionel Sow. She has appeared at major festivals including the Musikfest Berlin, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival and the Salzburg Festival.

Her 2025/26 engagements include(d) Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Bergen Symphony Orchestra under Caroline Huppert and a return with Thomas Hengelbrock to Salzburg.

Her repertory includes works such as Bach’s St John Passion, Haydn’s The Seasons, Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate and Mass in C minor and Mendelssohn’s St Paul, along with songs by Schubert, Brahms and Wolf. As a chamber musician she performs with the pianists Malcolm Bilson and Hilko Dumno, among others.

She features on numerous CD recordings, including Schumann’s Missa sacra with the Balthasar Neumann Choir under Thomas Hengelbrock (harmonia mundi), the modern premieres of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel’s Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld (Glossa Music) and Gregor Joseph Werner’s Der gute Hirt (Accent) with the Orfeo Orchestra under György Vashegyi and, most recently, volumes 4 and 5 of the complete recording of Telemann’s cantatas, Französischer Jahrgang 1714/1715 (French Year 1714/1715), with the Gutenberg Soloists and the Neumeyer Consort under Felix Koch (SWR CPO).

Agnes Kovacs was born in Budapest, studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main, and participated in masterclasses with artists including Helen Donath, Edith Wiens, Anna Korondi and Jonathan Alder.