About the artist
Baroque specialist and stage director
Career
Sophie Daneman studied at the Guildhall School of Music and has established an international reputation in a wide ranging repertoire. Her passion and affinity for the baroque repertoire has led to her collaborating with many of the leading specialists in this field and in particular William Christie and les Arts Florissants. An accomplished recitalist, Sophie Daneman has appeared at many of the world’s major recital venues, including the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Musikverein Vienna, and Carnegie Hall. In recent years, alongside her singing work, Sophie has also developed a career as a stage director.
On stage
Operatic engagements have included the title role Rodelinda (Onafhankelijk Toneel), Arianna, Cleopatra Giulio Cesare and Dalila Samson (Göttingen Handel Festival), and an acclaimed Mélisande for the Opéra Comique. She has sung Servilia La Clemenza di Tito (Barcelona Symphony Orchestra), Euridice L’Anima del Filosofo (Opéra de Lausanne), Euridice L’Orfeo and Dido and Aeneas (Bavarian State Opera), Phèdre Hippolyte et Aricie (Nederlandse Reisopera), title role Theodora with William Christie in New York, Paris and Salzburg, and Bernstein’s Wonderful Town and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Grange Park Opera. Sophie also appeared in the staged productions of Tod Machover’s Skellig at Sage Gateshead.
Sophie has toured extensively with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, as well as performing with Sir Neville Marriner, Gérard Lesne, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Phillippe Herreweghe, Ivor Bolton and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. She has sung Handel’s Apollo e Dafne at the Maggio Musicale, L’Allegro with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared with the Halle Handel Festival, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, RIAS Kammerchor, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent concert engagements include recitals for the BBC and appearances with De Doelen Rotterdam, William Walton’s Façade alongside Ian Bostridge and the Roma Sinfonietta Ensemble, the Lufthansa Baroque Festival and with Tafelmusik in Toronto, Schoenberg’s Quartet Op. 10 with the Tokyo String Quartet in Valencia and Madrid, and a joint recital at Temple Church with Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake and settings of Goethe and Schiller at the Oxford Lieder Festival. Recent vocal engagements include Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington and a recording of a new song cycle “The Thought Machine” by composer Cheryl Francis Hoad (Champs Hill).
Recordings
Her extensive discography includes the title role in Handel’s Rodelinda with Nicholas Kraemer (Virgin Classics), Theodora and Acis and Galatea (Gramophone award, Best Baroque Vocal recording) with William Christie for Erato, Vivaldi’s Ottone in Villa with Richard Hickox (Chandos) and three volumes of Mendelssohn lieder with Nathan Berg and Eugene Asti (Hyperion). For EMI she has recorded Schumann lieder with Julius Drake, and a disc of Noel Coward songs alongside Ian Bostridge. Recordings with Les Arts Florissants, include Rameau Grands Motets (Gramophone award, Best Baroque Vocal recording) and Les Fêtes d’Hébé (Gramophone award, Early Opera). Most recently she recorded Masque of Moments (Linn Records), with Elizabeth Kenny and Theatre of the Ayre.
Sophie recently directed a double bill of Rameau’s La naissance d’Osiris and Daphnis et Églé for Les Arts Florissants, with performances in Caen, Luxembourg, Dijon, London and Paris. Further highlights include, a recital and masterclass for the Oxford Lieder Festival, a recording project of seventeenth-century music entitled Masque of Moments with Theatre of the Ayre for Linn Records, further performances with Le Jardin des Voix and assisting Stephen Langridge on his production of Theodora for Théâtre des Champs Élysées.
