Soprano Serafina Starke (*2000) has been part of the International Opera Studio of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden since the 2024/25 season, where she performs, among other roles, as Frasquita (“Carmen”) and Echo (“Ariadne auf Naxos”). There, she sings the role of Isotta in a new production of “Die schweigsame Frau” under Christian Thielemann, and in the upcoming season, will make her debut as Blonde in a new production of “Die Entführung aus dem Serail”.
In the summer of 2022, she took part in the Young Singers Project (YSP) of the Salzburg Festival, where she portrayed the Princess (“Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren”). The following year, she returned to the festival and took on the role of Barbarina in a new production of “Le nozze di Figaro”. She has already appeared in productions at venues including the Bavarian State Opera, the Bregenz Festival, the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, and the International Handel Festival at the Halle Opera. In spring 2025, she sang at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival for the first time in Wagner’s “Parsifal”. She gave her operatic debut at the age of 13, singing the role of Flora in Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw”.
Serafina is also active as a concert singer: she has performed as a soloist in works such as Mozart’s “Great Mass in C minor”, “Exsultate, jubilate”, and Haydn’s “Schöpfung”. At the 2023 Salzburg Festival, she sang the soprano solo in Verdi’s “Te Deum” (Quattro pezzi sacri) under the baton of Riccardo Muti. In the upcoming season, she will make her debut with the Thomanerchor Leipzig, singing the first soprano solo in Bach’s “Mass in B minor”, and at the Zurich Opera House in the “Johannespassion”.
Lied singing holds a special place in her artistic life. Together with pianist Rebeka Stojkoska, she forms a song duo that was recently awarded third prize at the Paula Salomon-Lindberg Competition “Das Lied”.
At the ARD International Music Competition 2024, Serafina was awarded a special prize sponsored by BR-Klassik. In the same year, she won first prize at the Gasteig Competition in Munich and received a special prize at the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang. In 2022, she won the audience award at the Dostal Operetta Competition.
She performs with orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, and the Berlin, London, and Vienna Philharmonics. She also collaborates with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Kirill Petrenko, and Christian Thielemann, and with stage directors including Lydia Steier, Martin Kušej, Philipp Stölzl, and Jan Philipp Gloger.
Serafina began her vocal training at the University Mozarteum Salzburg in 2016, when she studied in the Pre-college programme with Prof. Bernd Valentin. From 2018 to 2022, she completed her Bachelor’s degree under Prof. Ildikó Raimondi. There, she also received instruction in early music from Andreas Scholl and was part of Prof. Pauliina Tukiainen’s Lied class. In 2024, she completed her Master’s degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, studying with Prof. Daniela Sindram. In 2020, she also began violin studies with Werner Neugebauer at the Mozarteum. She continues to expand her education through masterclasses with artists such as Gregory Lamar, Hedwig Fassbender, Waltraud Meier, and Lisette Oropesa.
Serafina received her first violin and piano lessons at the age of three, studying with, among others, Jorge Sutil and Prof. Gitti Pirner. She began vocal lessons in 2013 with her mother, Antonia Starke. From 2012 to 2018, she was a member of the youth orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera, ATTACCA.
Last edited July 2025
