Mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink was born to Slovenian parents in Buenos Aires and received her vocal and musical education at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón. In 1985 she won first prize at the Nuevas Voces Liricas competition and moved to Europe. She soon developed a reputation as a recital singer whose repertoire extends from the baroque to the 20th century. She has appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as with many leading baroque ensembles. In these performances she has partnered with such conductors as Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Simon Rattle, and Franz Welser-Möst. Meanwhile, in Europe Bernarda Fink has continued to pursue the stage career she had begun at the Teatro Colón. Of particular note are her appearances as Cecilio in a new Viennese production of Mozart’s Lucio Silla under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, as Idamante in a staging of Idomeneo by Luc Bondy at the Teatro Real Madrid, and as Irene in Handel’s Theodora at the Salzburg Festival. A passionate lieder singer, Bernarda Fink has performed at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Vienna’s Musikverein, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Her recording of Dvořák lieder garnered the Diapason d'Or, while her most recent release of Schubert settings was named “Song CD of 2009” by Die Zeit. Her discography includes almost 50 recordings that have won multiple prizes, among them a Grammy Award for Handel’s Giulio Cesare. In 2006 Bernarda Fink received the Austrian Honorary Medal for Art and Science.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on April 3, 2004 with the Mozart Requiem under the baton of Mariss Jansons.
May 2010