Dutch mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen has established herself in recent years as a versatile soloist of international standing. She made her tumultuously celebrated debut at the Berlin State Opera, taking the lead role of Turno in Agostino Steffani's L’Amor vien dal Destino under René Jacobs. In addition, she has toured with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer with Mozart's Die Zauberflöte to cities including Budapest, Amsterdam, London and Berlin, further appearing in Schumann's Szenen aus Goethes Faust at Barbican Hall under Daniel Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra. She is equally in demand as a performer of contemporary music: in this capacity, she made her debut at the Ruhrtriennale in 2017 with the world premiere of Kein Licht by Philippe Manoury with texts by Elfriede Jelinek. As part of the Musikfest Berlin, Olivia gave a guest performance with Musikfabrik Köln in the Berlin Philharmonie under Peter Eötvös, and is a regular guest at the renowned Kissinger Sommer where she has premiered songs by Wolfgang Rihm. Furthermore, she has been invited by the Bregenz Festival to perform the role of Saiko in the world premiere of Thomas Larcher’s Das Jagdgewehr.

Engagements of the past seasons comprise her role debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni as well as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, both on tour with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under René Jacobs. She appeared as a soloist in the frame of Salzburg’s Mozart Week along with Jörg Widmann, and sang Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor under Masaaki Suzuki at the Théâtre du Champs-Elysées as well as at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. With the same work, she also gave her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Daniel Harding. In addition, Olivia made her debut at Opéra National de Paris singing the role of Abel in Alessandro Scarlatti’s Il Primo Omicidio under René Jacobs, and appeared as Fjodor in a concert performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam under the baton of Pablo Heras-Casado.

Further highlights include Ramiro in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera with Andrew Parrott and the Munich Radio Orchestra, the title role in Handel’s Teseo under Federico Maria Sardelli in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, as well as the title role in Vivaldi’s Arsilda at the Grand Theatre Luxembourg, Opéra de Lille and Versailles’ Opéra Royal under Václav Luks. Olivia also sang Annio in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito under Stefano Montanari in Moscow, Cherubino in an Aix-en-Provence Festival production at the Opéra de Dijon under Jonathan Cohen, and gave a guest appearance in the same production under Andreas Spering in Bahrain.

Further major roles of her operatic repertoire include Ariodante (Ariodante), Sesto (Giulio Cesare), Idamante (Idomeneo), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Angelina (La Cenerentola), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel) and L'Enfant (L’enfant et les sortilèges).

A passionate exponent of the Classical and Baroque repertoire, Olivia Vermeulen has performed in Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor under Masaaki Suzuki in Tokyo (the latter a Gramophone award-winning CD released by BIS Records), and has extensively toured with Bach’s Christmas Oratorio under Helmuth Rilling. In the frame of the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, Olivia appeared as a soloist in Mendelssohn’s version (1841) of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Lübeck, with Masaaki Suzuki conducting the NDR Chor and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. The collaboration with Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan furthermore led her to Japan for a series of concerts with Handel’s Messiah.

In the current season, and besides from three concerts with extracts from Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer, Olivia Vermeulen will tour with the Belgian B’Rock Orchestra and present a new project entitled “Life and Death” featuring works by Purcell, Blow, Bach and others. Subsequently, she will then sing the alto part in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging under René Jacobs and give her highly awaited debut as Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Zurich Opera House.

Beyond the opera stage, Olivia Vermeulen enjoys a busy solo career on the concert platform. She has appeared at festivals such as the Munich Opera Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the RheinVokal Festival, the Musikfest Stuttgart and the Handel Festival in Halle, working with conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Iván Fischer, Markus Stenz, Marek Janowski, Andrea Marcon, Franz Brüggen, Reinhard Goebel, Michael Schønwandt, Alessandro de Marchi, Konrad Junghänel, Tomáš Netopil, Enoch zu Guttenberg and Lothar Zagrosek.

Olivia Vermeulen studied singing in Detmold with Mechtild Böhme and in Berlin with Julie Kaufmann. She took part in various Lieder classes given by Wolfram Rieger and Axel Bauni, and participated in masterclasses with Andreas Scholl, Thomas Quasthoff, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Irwin Gage. She currently receives vocal coaching from Margreet Honig.

Numerous radio and CD recordings document the output of this versatile singer. Her first solo album entitled “Dirty Minds” has been released with the Dutch label Challenge Records in February 2020. On that occasion, Olivia Vermeulen also gave her highly-acclaimed recital debut at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

2020 | 2021

www.oliviavermeulen.com

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by artist management.