Judith van Wanroij

The Dutch soprano Judith van Wanroij has emerged as a prominent figure among the French and English Baroque specialists, coming of age under conductors like Simon Halsey, William Christie, Kenneth Weiss, and Frans Brüggen, all of whom she has performed with. Her training encompassed both early music and mainstream repertory. Judith van Wanroij was born in Groenlo, the Netherlands, on the German border, on January 9, 1974. At first she studied law, in which she obtained a Master's degree, but then switched to voice studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory under teachers Margreet Honig, Charles van Tassel, and Lucia Meeuwsen. She went on for further studies at the Nieuwe Opera Academie in Amsterdam, graduating with distinction in 2004. Another important layer of her education came the following year, when she joined Le Jardin des Voix, the young singers' training program maintained by William Christie's French Baroque opera ensemble Les Arts Florissants in Paris. With other singers from the program she toured Europe and appeared in New York, and this experience opened up major Baroque roles for her, including those in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and King Arthur, the triple role of Cléone/Suivante/Ombre in Rameau's Castor et Pollux, Oriane in Lully's Amadis, the title role in Lully's Alceste, and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, in which she made her debut at L'Opéra de Lyon in France. In repertory outside the early music realm she has appeared as Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème, Karolina in Smetana's The Two Widows, Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, the Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. She has also performed contemporary music, including the role of Criside in Bruno Maderna's Satyricon. She has appeared in major opera houses in northwestern Europe, including the Opéra Royale de Wallonie, as well as at London's Wigmore Hall. Van Wanroij has recorded for various Dutch labels, and she was heard in 2013 on a recording of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 52 "Lobgesang" with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 she appeared under Christophe Rousset in a recording of Salieri's rare opera seria Les Horaces, on the Aparte label.
© James Manheim /TiVo