German soprano Marie-Sophie Pollak graduated from Munich’s University of Music and Performing Arts with a degree in concert singing, the teaching of singing and, later, a master’s degree, which she studied under Gabriele Fuchs.
Early highlights of her career have included Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten under Kent Nagano at the Audi Summer Concerts in Ingolstadt and her Vienna Musikverein debut in Handel’s Susanna. Paris audiences first heard her at the Théâtre du Châtelet as Tamiri in Mozart’s Il re pastore under Jean-Christophe Spinosi, while at the Lugano Festival she sang Mozart’s concert aria ‘Ch’io mi scordi di te’ K. 505 with the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and Christian Zacharias (piano). She also appeared as a soloist in performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Collegium 1704 under Václav Luks in Prague and Dresden.
Marie-Sophie Pollak made her acclaimed debut at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie in Die Jahreszeiten under Nagano in 2017. The following year she took part in the traditional New Year’s Eve concerts with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, also under Nagano. Engagements in 2018/19 included Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Zurich Tonhalle under Thomas Hengelbrock and Cupid in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in Katowice with the Akademie für Alte Musik of Berlin under Alexander Liebreich. A particular highlight of her career has been her Cupid in John Neumeier’s production of Orphée et Eurydice under Alessandro De Marchi at the Hamburg State Opera.
In 2019/20 Marie-Sophie Pollak has appeared in this last-named production at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and again in Hamburg, where she has additionally been heard in Neumeier’s choreographed version of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and in a ballet programme performed under the title of Brahms/Balanchine. On the concert platform she has been heard in Beethoven’s Egmont under Roger Norrington in Salzburg and made no fewer than three debuts in Canada: in the Christmas Oratorio under Nagano with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and in performances of Messiah under Bernard Labadie, first with Les Violins du Roy in Quebec and later with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. In June 2020, after making her Salzburg Whitsun Festival debut in Orphée, she will sing Marzelline (Fidelio) at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
