The german soprano Serafina Starke (*2000) is currently studying for a Master’s degree in singing at the HMT Munich in the class of Prof. Daniela Sindram. In the summer of 2022 she took part in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project, where she embodied the role of the Princess in „Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren“ and a flower girl in Wagner’s „Parsifal“. She returned to the Salzburg Festival in 2023 to sing the role of Barbarina („Le nozze di Figaro“).
In 2023, she gave her debut at the Easter Festival Baden-Baden, where she appeared in Strauss’s “Die Frau ohne Schatten”, as well as at the Bavarian State Opera as Queen of the Night in the children’s opera „Max und die Superheld:innen“. At the 2024 Handel Festival Halle she can be seen as Oriana („Amadigi di Gaula“). She has already appeared in several productions of the Kammeroper München. Further stage appearances include Despina („Così fan tutte“), Papagena („Die Zauberflöte“) and Amore/Valletto („L’incoronazione di Poppea“), amongst others. She gave her operatic debut at the age of 13 as Flora in Britten’s „The turn of the screw“.
Serafina is also an avid concert singer: she appeared as a soloist in works such as Mozart’s „Requiem“, „Exsultate, jubilate“ or Haydn’s „Schöpfung“, amongst others. In 2023 she sang the first soprano solo in Mozart’s “Great Mass in C-minor” with the Orquestra Simfònica de les Illes Balears. At the Salzburg Festival 2023 she sang the soprano solo part in Verdi’s Te deum („Quattro pezzi sacri“) with Riccardo Muti conducting.
Art songs hold a special place for her: together with pianist Rebeka Stojkoska she forms a Liedduo, which was recently awarded the 3rd prize at the Paula Salomon-Lindberg competition “Das Lied”.
The soprano is a scholarship holder of the Yehudi-Menuhin foundation Salzburg as well as the Gianna-Szel study foundation. 2022 she received a prize at the Dostal-Operetta-competition and won the Fritz-Wunderlich award in 2021. In 2024 she was awarded with an advancement award by the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft.
She appeared as a soloist with orchestras like the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics and has worked with well-known conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Raphaël Pichon or Leopold Hager and directors such as Lydia Steier, Martin Kušej, Philipp Stölzl or Philipp Krenn.
Serafina began her vocal training at the University Mozarteum Salzburg in 2016 when she was accepted as a Pre-College student in the class of Prof. Bernd Valentin. From 2018 to 2022 she studied for a Bachelor’s degree in the class of Ildikò Raimondi, additionally she studied old music with Andreas Scholl and art song with Pauliina Tukiainen. 2020 she took up her violin studies with Werner Neugebauer, also at the Mozarteum. Furthermore she attended masterclasses with Lisette Oropesa, Anne Le Bozec, Luca Pianca and Gerhild Romberger.
She received her first violin and piano lessons at the age of three, i.a. with Jorge Sutil and Prof. Gitti Pirner and began singing in 2013 under the tutelage of her mother, Antonia Starke. She was a member of the youth orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera, ATTACCA, from 2012-2018.
Last edited March 2024
