Serafina Starke

The german soprano Serafina Starke (*2000) will be studying for a Master’s degree in singing at the HMT Munich in the class of Prof. Daniela Sindram from October 2022. In the summer of 2022 she is taking part in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project, where she will embody the role of the Princess in Hanke’s „Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren“ and a flower girl in Wagner’s „Parsifal“ with the Vienna Philharmonics under the baton of Daniel Barenboim.

She has already appeared in several productions of the Kammeroper München: in 2021 she played Antiope in the opera „Talestri“, composed by M.A. Walpurgis and in March of 2022 she took on the role of Ela Delahay in „Charleys Tante“ by E. Fischer. With the opera class of the Mozarteum she appeared as Amore/Valletto in Monteverdi’s „L‘incoronazione di Poppea“. Furthermore she sang the role of Papagena in the „Zauberflöte“ as a part of the Munich Philharmonics‘ concerts for children. She gave her opera debut at the age of 13 as Flora in Britten’s „The turn of the screw“, a production of opera incognita.

Serafina is also an avid concert singer: she appeared as a soloist in works such as Mozart’s „Krönungsmesse“, „Exsultate, jubilate“, Haydn’s „Schöpfung“ or Händel’s „Gloria“, amongst others. 2021 she sang the soprano solo in Mozart’s Requiem in the Salzburg Cathedral under the baton of Jörn Andresen. She is a member of the Capella Cathedralis in the Munich Cathedral.

Art songs hold a special place for her: together with pianist Philipp Rhein she won several prizes at song competitions, gave song recitals in the USA and was a guest at the Art Song Festival HIDALGO in Munich.

The soprano is a scholarship holder of the Yehudi-Menuhin foundation Salzburg as well as the Gianna-Szel study foundation. She won the Fritz-Wunderlich award in 2021. In 2018 she was a finalist at the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang. At Jugend Musiziert competitions she won multiple first and special prizes in different categories between 2012 and 2018.

Furthermore she worked with conductors Hansjörg Albrecht, Andreas Partilla, Johanna Soller and Gernot Sahler and directors Dominik Wilgenbus, Alexander von Pfeil and Andreas Wiedemann.

Serafina began her vocal training at the University Mozarteum 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 Luca Pianca, Gerhild Romberger and Fenna Kügel-Seifried.

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.

Stand: September 2022