Biography
Mezzo-soprano Sophie Michaux was born in London and raised in the French Alps. The 30 year-old mezzo was noted as a “warm and colorful mezzo” (Opera News) and as “a study in color…Michaux’s expressive quality and variety is remarkable ” (Arts Impulse).
Her upcoming engagements will include her return on stage with the Boston Early Music Festival in November 2018, in Francesca Caccini’s Opera La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’Isola d’Alcina and inVersailles: portrait of a royal domain in June 2019, a recording with BEMF and Blue Heron as well as a US tour with the Lorelei Ensemble, Boston’s critically-acclaimed women’s vocal ensemble.
On stage, her roles include the role of Ceres in Boston Early Music Festival’s production of Lalande’s Les Fontaines de Versailles, the title roles in La Cenerentola (NEMPAC), in Rinaldo (Boston Opera Collaborative), for which she was nominated as Best Female Performer in an Opera for the 2015 Arts Impulse Theatre Awards, Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia (Opera Brittenica). Her performance of 21-st century works includes the role of Anne in To Hell and Back by Jake Heggie (Boston Opera Collaborative), Mrs. Soames in Our Town by Ned Rorem (Boston Opera Collaborative), Higuchi in Troubled Water by Misha Saldkind-Pearl (Guerilla Opera), Ceres in The Tempest by Joseph Summer (The Shakespeare Concerts). In December 2017, she was the lead singer in The Christmas Revels, that had 18 performances in Harvard’s historical Sanders Theatre.
Mrs. Michaux is simultaneously active in Oratorio: this fall, you can hear her a soloist in Handel’s Messiah at the Trinity Church of Boston, and Bach’s Magnificat with the New England Classical Singers. Past highlights have been in Duruflé’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C , Bach’s Magnificat and B Minor Mass, Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Palmeri’s Missa Tango with the Chorus of Westerley, Trinity Church of Boston, The Metropolitan Chorale, Choral Art, New England Classical singers, and The Andover Choral Society. She was a soloist at the Egida Sartori and Laura Alvini Early Music Seminar in Venice, Italy, directed by René Jacobs.
As a core member the nationally renowned Lorelei Ensemble, she maintains a national touring schedule collaborating with ensembles that include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center, A Far Cry, and Cantus.
Although she focuses on classical music, her versatility and musical curiosity have brought her to be an active performer in many repertoires including French Cabaret songs, English Sea Shanties, as well as various world polyphonies: in 2014 and 2017, she toured the U.S and Europe with Northern Harmony, an ensemble that is renowned for its command of varied world ethnic singing styles from the Balkans, the Republic of Georgia, South-Africa, and the United States. She is the founding member of Sophie et Adam, a folk music duet with guitarist and singer Adam Jacob Simon, and of Culomba, a world music vocal ensemble that audaciously brings together audiences to experience the beauty and diversity of vocal music from very disparate styles, eras, and regions. She has also explored the Yiddish song repertoire, with performances at the Goethe Institute for the Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprise and the celebration of musical wealth in the Vilna and Łódź Ghettos during WWII.
Photo credit: Asher + Oak Photography