Golda Schultz

With her career still on the rise as of the early 2020s, Golda Schultz is one of South Africa's leading operatic sopranos. She has a large repertory stretching from Purcell through Mozart, a particular specialty, to Hans Werner Henze. Schultz was born in 1983 in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Bloemfontein. Her parents were both of mixed-race background, and she was sometimes able to attend the musical theater performances her mother loved despite apartheid-era restrictions. Although Roman Catholic, Schultz was named after former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, whom her mother admired. Her father, although he had been trained in Germany, was able to find work as a mathematics professor only in the segregated Black "homeland" of Bophuthatswana. Schultz showed musical talent as a small child and began taking violin lessons. She attended Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, studying journalism and continuing to play the violin. One day, she checked out a library copy of soprano Kiri te Kanawa performing in Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus and became fascinated by it. She performed in choirs, and a professor heard her sing and urged her to pursue a vocal career. Schultz enrolled in a voice graduate program at the University of Cape Town and then went on for further studies at the Juilliard School in New York. Her teachers included tenor Johan Botha, mezzo-soprano Michelle Breedt, and te Kanawa. In 2011, Schultz was accepted into the opera studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where she has lived ever since. She completed the program in 2013 and then joined the company ensemble, remaining there until 2018. Her parts on the side became increasingly important during this period; she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2015, playing Sophie in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, and the following year, she appeared at Italy's La Scala as Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. In 2017, Schultz made her New York Metropolitan Opera debut as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. With an unusually large repertory for a young singer, Schultz has branched out into choral music, performing, among other major works, Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under conductor Andris Nelsons, and into art song, often appearing with pianist Jonathan Ware. With Ware, she released her debut album, This Be Her Verse, featuring works by women composers from Clara Schumann to the contemporary composer Kathleen Tagg, on the Alpha label in 2022.
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