Sofia Kirwan-Baez

Described as a ‘a superb singer actress’ (Opera Today), Anglo-Venezuelan soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez is a Kathleen Ferrier semi-finalist, a Josephine Baker Trust artist, a Sybil Tutton award holder and a Musicians’ Company Award recipient. Operatic roles include Elle La Voix Humaine (Barricade Arts & Cumbria Opera), Adina Elisir d’amore (Wild Arts), Eurydice Orpheus in the Underworld (RCM Opera Studio), Le Feu L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (RCM Opera Studio), Juno The Fairy Queen (Theatron Novum), Papagena The Magic Flute (RCM Opera Studio) and World premieres of works by Jasper Dommett (RWCMD Atmospheres Festival), Marco Galvani (Faded Ink Productions) and Toby Young (Oxford Music Faculty). In Summer 2023, she was called in to cover Eurydice in Longborough Opera’s Orfeo. Roles in opera scenes include Sophie Rosenkavalier, Gretel Hansel & Gretel and Lisa Queen of Spades.

A seasoned recitalist, past concert work includes Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at Birmingham Cathedral (2022), and fully staged at the Midlands Arts Centre (2023). Oratorio performances have comprised Handel’s Messiah with Nevill Holt (2022), Bach’s Trauerode BWV 198 and B minor mass (City Music with Adrian Butterfield), Haydn’s Creation (Mayfield Festival), Mahler’s 4th Symphony, Monteverdi’s Vespers (Cadogan Hall), Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Dixit Dominus (Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford with Schola Cantorum), Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, among others. Sofia makes her Wigmore debut in September 2023 as part of their French Song Exchange, a programme supervised by Felicity Lott and François Le Roux.

Having begun her musical studies with the violin in El Sistema in Caracas (Venezuela), she later started playing the piano, continuing both instruments in the Périgueux Conservatoire. Sofia studied Music at Oxford University and Vocal Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, where she graduated with distinction and was supported by Rotary International. Sofia has been a Huffner Scholar supported by the Sir Gordon Palmer Scholarship in the Royal College of Music Opera School and is a winner of the RCM’s Concerto Competition (2021). She was also a member of Genesis 16 (2018-19).

Future engagements include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Jeremy Summerly, and Brighton Early Music Festival’s Bach & Buxtehude concert.

Updated: 24/09/2023