Karola Pavone

The Italian-German soprano Karola Pavone has established herself as a versatile musician and performer; her artistic activities are evenly distributed between her operatic career, concert work, musical comedy shows, chamber music and Art Song, which has always been of particular importance to her. Karola was born and raised in Reggio Calabria, Italy. Her musical talents were encouraged by her german mother, a musician, from an early age, and she began playing the piano and viola as a child. Her love of art song quickly became apparent, and as early as 2003 she received an award in the Lied category of the national "Musical Youth" contest. She trained at the Cologne Academy of Music (Musikhochschule Köln), and graduated with honors, then continued her operatic training in Göteborg, Sweden. At the end of her postgraduate studies, also in Cologne, she completed the rigorous concert exam course "with distinction".

As a means of furthering her knowledge and skill in the Lied repertoire, she has taken part in master classes conducted by Edith Mathis, Irwin Gage, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Olaf Bär, Robert Holl, Rudolf Jansen and Graham Johnson. Karola Pavone appears on a recording of Marcel Dupré's De profundis on the Corona label together with Saarländischer Rundfunk. Her voice was featured on Deutschlandfunk Radio via the début recording of saxophonist Koryun Asatryan on the Genuin label, where she displayed her affinity for contemporary music.

She was a finalist in the distinguished Lied competitions Das Lied in Berlin and the International Brahms Competition in Pörtschach. She and spanish pianist Ainoa Padrón were awarded the Lied Prize in the Festival Vocallis in Vaals (NL), then second Prize and a special Prize for contemporary Art Song in the Cantando-Parlando Song Competition. Along with Serbian pianist Boris Radulovic, she won first prize in the International Lied Duo Competition Rhine-Ruhr, awarded by Norman Shetler and Mireille Delunsch. Boris and Karola were also awarded the “Rising Stars Award” of International Lied Festival Zeist; their debut album “Le Chevalier Malheur”, dedicated to the biography of French poet Paul Verlaine in songs, was released in 2020 by the label Coviello Classics.
Karola ́s talent and versatility were supported through scholarships by Villa Musica Rhineland-Palatinate, Jeunesses musicales Deutschland, the German National Academic Foundation, the Richard Wagner Society of Cologne and Deutscher Musikrat.

Concert engagements and Lieder recitals have taken her to Italy, Portugal, Poland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands; she performed at Cologne Philharmonic Hall and WDR Radio Hall, Die Glocke Bremen, Gewandhaus Leipzig and in Hamburg's Laeisz Hall, where she will return to perform Mendelssohn ́s “Elijah” in November 2023. In 2016 she joined the Opera Ensemble at Stadttheater Gießen, where she continues to appear in various roles as a guest soloist. Since 2020, further guest engagements have taken her to several german opera houses, such as Staatstheater Meiningen, MiR Gelsenkirchen, Opera Frankfurt am Main, the German Theatre Munich, Cologne Opera, Bonn Opera House and lastly Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she is currently performing in Puccini ́s “Il Trittico” under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles.

Updated: 26/09/23