With the financial support of the British Council and the Belgian Foundation for Talent, soprano Sophie Karthäuser completed her studies with Noelle Barker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In September 2003, she received the audience prize and the third prize at the Wigmore Hall competition, one of the most important song contests. Sophie Karthäuser has worked with ensembles such as the Academy of Ancient Music, Les Arts Florissants (William Christie), the European Baroque Orchestra (Roy Goodman and Edward Higginbottom), Archibudelli (Anner Bylsma) and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège (Louis Langrée).
Sophie Karthäuser also gives recitals with her pianist Eugene Asti in places such as the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, the Palais des Beaux Arts, the Flanders Opera and the Opéra de Lille. Sophie Karthäuser took part in Thésée (Lully) with William Christie and the European Baroque Academy of Ambronay. At the Guildhall School she performed the rôles of Almirena in Handel’s Rinaldo and Nina in Donizetti’s Il Giovedì Grasso. After her first Barbarina at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, she was invited back to sing in L’enfant et les sortilèges under the direction of Marcello Viotti, in Monteverdi’s Orfeo (La Musica, Euridice, Echo) with René Jacobs, and Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In 2005 she made her debut as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels to much acclaim. (“... La vraie reine de cette Flûte est incontestablement la Pamina, que campe la jeune soprano belge Sophie Karthäuser, jolie comme un coeur. Une Pamina aux aigus lumineux, fraîche, tendre et sensible – un peu de finesse dans ce monde de brutes.” Marie-Aude Roux - Le Monde “...mais il y a beaucoup d’espoirs à fonder sur la Pamina de la jeune Belge Sophie Karthäuser, dont les aigus cristallins à la Gundula Janowitz resteront comme les rares moments de poésie d’une soirée sans magie.” Christian Merlin - Le Figaro).
In December 2000 Sophie Karthäuser made her début at the Frankfurter Oper singing Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. The 2003/2004 season has been very exciting for her: she performed in Peter Grimes (2nd niece) at La Monnaie and in Bilbao, Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Opéra de Lille and at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Eritea in Cavalli’s Eliogabalo with René Jacobs at La Monnaie and at the Innsbrucker Festwochen, Hanako in Hanjo (Hosokawa) at the Festival International d’Art Lyrique of Aix-en- Provence, Amore in the Monteverdi trilogy at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and at the Opéra de Caen with Il Giardino Armonico, Hosokawa’s Hanjo in Brussels. Her recording of Grétry arias received some very warm comments from the international press, including a “diapason découverte” from the French magazine Diapason. She also recorded Myslivecek’s La Passione with Christoph Spering.
