Aurhelia Varak

French mezzo-soprano Aurhelia Varak has just come from Marseilles, France, where she gave the European premiere of the Canta-Concerto for mezzo and orchestra by Marc Neikrug with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille. Varak has performed with the HK Phil in the Ring Cycle as Wellgunde in Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, and as Siegrune in Die Walküre. Upcoming staged opera performances include the role of Gemma in Benjamin Godard’s Dante at the Opera de St Etienne.

She has performed Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été in Qingdao, China, an Italian Opera Gala in Geneva, and the title role in Carmen (Opera Hong Kong), Carmen in Shanghai and on tour in north-east China with Shanghai Opera, and Carmen in Brazil.

Other performances have included Siebel (Faust) and La Muse/Nicklausse (The Tales of Hoffmann) for Opera Hong Kong, Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Sesto (GiulioCesare) at Glimmerglass Opera, New York, and the roles of Bergere, Chatte, Chauve-souris and Ecureuil in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. In 2015 she sang Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn at the Season Opening Concert of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille and Rossini’s Stabat Mater at Valencia’s Palau de la Musica. Other projects include a series of concerts in Italy and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Aurhelia Varak holds a vocal performance degree from the Conservatorium in Amsterdam and has studied with Renata Scotto in Rome and with Shirley Verrett in Siena, Italy. She won 2nd Prize at the 2011 Leoncavallo International Singing Competition in Italy. She was the recipient of a 2005 grant from the Wagner Foundation in Venice.