MEZZO-SOPRANO | ALTO
Olivia Vermeulen
Representation: World
- Alexander Brunner
- +43 (0)5 06 80-011
- brunner@machreich-artists.com
GALLERY
BIOGRAPHY
Dutch mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen has established herself in recent years as a versatile soloist on the international stage. She made her debut at the Berlin State Opera as Turno in Steffani's L'Amor vien dal destino under the musical direction of René Jacobs, toured Europe with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and appeared as a soloist in Schumann's Szenen aus Goethes Faust at London's Barbican Hall under Daniel Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra. Equally in demand as an interpreter of contemporary music, Olivia has appeared at the Ruhrtriennale and the Holland Festival in Philippe Manoury's Kein Licht and made guest appearances at the Musikfest Berlin under Peter Eötvös. Olivia created the role of Saiko in the world premiere of Thomas Larcher's first opera The Hunting Gun at the Bregenz Festival, premiered several songs by Wolfgang Rihm at the Kissinger Sommer classical music festival, and appeared at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam as Idris in John Adams' opera The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by the composer himself.
As an internationally sought-after concert singer, Olivia Vermeulen appears regularly on stage in classical and baroque repertoire. With Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan she performed Handel's Messiah, Bach's St Matthew Passion and Mozart's Mass in C minor – the latter which was released by BIS Records and received a Gramophone Award. Equally in demand as a soloist in Bach's Passions, she has worked with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Residentie Orkest The Hague for the St Matthew Passion, while at the International Baroque Days at Melk Abbey in Austria she appeared with Concentus Musicus under Stefan Gottfried as the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, further to a solo matinee featuring works by Geminiani, Handel and Pepusch.
Other important milestones in her career include a role debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Dorabella in Così fan tutte, both with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra conducted by René Jacobs. She made her house debut, also with Jacobs, at the Opéra national de Paris as Abel in Alessandro Scarlatti's opera Il primo omicidio, a co-production with the Berlin State Opera. Olivia made her house debut at Opernhaus Zürich as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and returned to the Berlin State Opera for a new production of Vivaldi's rarely performed Il Giustino.
Together with Jörg Widmann and the Camerata Salzburg, she performed in concert at the Salzburg Mozart Week, while under Masaaki Suzuki she performed in Mozart's Mass in C minor at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. With the same work, Olivia celebrated her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Daniel Harding. As a soloist Olivia Vermeulen appeared with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 under Masato Suzuki, in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Residentie Orkest in The Hague under Matthew Halls, and with the Belgian B'Rock Orchestra under Andreas Küppers in The Hague, Ghent and at the Thüringer Bachwochen. In a collaboration with Jordi Savall and his ensemble Le Concert des Nations, Olivia further performed as a soloist in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, as well as appearing in Mozart’s Mass in C minor in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe.
Projects in the current season include Projects in the current season include Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle with the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Zürcher Sing-Akademie under Florian Helgath, Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Concentus Musicus at the Vienna Musikverein and with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in Baden-Baden and Budapest, as well as a varied New Year's Eve concert with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, in a programme ranging from Handel and Mozart to 20th century works. Olivia Vermeulen also makes her debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam with Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and Dvořák's Moravian Duets under the baton of Iván Fischer, and can be heard with La Cetra Barockorchester under Andrea Marcon in the Swiss and Dutch premiere of Domenico Cimarosa's opera L'Olimpiade in Basel and Amsterdam. Her long-standing collaboration with René Jacobs is reflected in the current season with a European tour of Vivaldi's Il Giustino with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and Bach's St Matthew Passion with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. In Tokyo she will join the Bach Collegium Japan under Masato Suzuki as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.
Equally at home on the recital stage, Olivia Vermeulen released the highly acclaimed solo album "Dirty Minds", which was awarded the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics and the Edison Klassiek Prize. Together with her lieder partner Jan Philip Schulze, she took the album on tour to the Oxford International Song Festival, the International Lied Festival Zeist, the Gesellschaftshaus Magdeburg and the International Art Centre deSingel in Antwerp. At the Brucknerhaus Linz, the pair gave a recital dedicated to the Second Viennese School, also featuring works by Zemlinsky, Webern, Schönberg and Berg.
Olivia Vermeulen has worked with many renowned conductors in the course of her career, including Frans Brüggen, Alessandro De Marchi, Iván Fischer, Reinhard Goebel, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Marek Janowski, Konrad Junghänel, Andrea Marcon, Tomáš Netopil, Michael Schønwandt, Markus Stenz, Masaaki and Masato Suzuki and Lothar Zagrosek, and has appeared at the Bregenz Festival, the Holland Festival, the Munich Opera Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Rheinvokal Festival, the Stuttgart Music Festival and the Handel Festival in Halle.
Numerous radio and CD recordings are a testament to Olivia Vermeulen’s artistic versatility. Following her first solo disc “Dirty Minds” with Dutch label Challenge Records, she performed the programme in an acclaimed debut recital in February 2020 at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, releasing thereafter her second solo album "Hello Darkness" in February 2022, also with Challenge Records and alongside pianist Jan Philip Schulze. The last release in this series - after the down-to-earth ‘Dirty Minds’ and the black humour of ‘Hello Darkness’, is an album dedicated to the celestial worlds entitled ‘In Heaven’ - bringing this trilogy to a fitting conclusion with another song recital at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
2025 | 2026
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by artist management.
DISCOGRAPHY
Hello Darkness
Songs by Claudio Monteverdi, Billie Eilish, Franz Schubert, Nick Cave, George Crumb et al.
Olivia Vermeulen, Mezzosopran
Jan Philip Schulze, Klavier
Label: Challenge Records International | 2022
Ludwig van Beethoven: Missa Solemnis op.123
Lina Johnson, Olivia Vermeulen, Martin Platz, Manuel Walser
La Capella Nacional de Catalunya, Le Concert des Nations
Conductor: Jordi Savall
Label: AliaVox, DDD, 2022
Dirty Minds
Songs by Purcell, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Schönberg, Berg, Eisler et al.
Olivia Vermeulen, mezzo-soprano
Jan Philip Schulze, piano
Label: Challenge Records International | 2020
Mozart: La Finta Giardiniera KV 196
Sandrine Piau, Julian Pregardien, Olivia Vermeulen, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, Susanne Bernhard, Lydia Teuscher, Michael Kupfer-Radecky
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Conductor: Andrew Parrott
Label: Chandos Records | 2023
VIDEOS
CALENDAR
Gustav Mahler: ‘Das Lied von der Erde’, arrangement by Arnold Schönberg
Olivia Vermeulen, mezzo-soprano
Toby Spence, tenor
Musicians of the Budapest Festival Orchestra
Giuseppe Mentuccia, conductor
Gustav Mahler: ‘Das Lied von der Erde’, arrangement by Arnold Schönberg
Olivia Vermeulen, mezzo-soprano
Toby Spence, tenor
Musicians of the Budapest Festival Orchestra
Giuseppe Mentuccia, conductor
Franz Schubert: Symphony No 7 in B minor (Unfinished Symphony)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Great Mass in C minor, K. 427
Elisabeth Breuer, soprano
Olivia Vermeulen, mezzo-soprano
Martin Platz, tenor
Florian Götz, bass
Kent Nagano, conductor
Orchester der KlangVerwaltung
Vokalensemble LauschWerk
Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV 232
Elisabeth Breuer, soprano
Olivia Vermeulen, sopran II and alto
Martin Platz, tenor
Florian Götz, bass
Kent Nagano, conductor
Orchester und Chor der KlangVerwaltung
