Simona Houda-Šaturová

Simona Šaturová was born in Bratislava (Slovakia). She studied at the Bratislava Conservatory and attended master classes with Ileana Cortrubas. She was awarded the “2001 Thalia Prize” for the best vocal performance of the year as Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. The artist was awarded the “Walter and Charlotte Hamel Foundation Prize” at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in August 2007.

She opened this year in Budapest with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Adam Fischer in Haydn's Schöpfung and continued with Bryn Terfel at recital in Prague and a concert of Mozart's c-Moll Mass in Sixtina Chapel.

Besides her numerous appearances at the National Theatre Prague (La finta Giardiniera with Ursel and Karl Hermann in 2008, e.g.) and the Prague State Opera, the soprano singer has also performed on the stages of the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), the Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Opéra de Monte Carlo and the Megaron in Athens. She made her debut at the Oper Frankfurt (first night short notice stand-in) as Pamina in 2007. She was then offered roles of Madama Cortese (Il Viaggio a Reims) and Oscar(Ein Maskenball) in 2008 as well as Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor) in 2010.

Her repertoire includes other roles, such as Gilda (Rigoletto), Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Sandrina (La Finta Giardiniera), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail).

Concert performances play an important part on Simona Šaturová’s calendar: an audition with Christoph Eschenbach led the soprano to Paris for a short time in the middle of September 2006, when she sang Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 under the great conductor himself on the occasion of the reopening of the Salle Pleyel. As a result of her outstanding performance, the Philadelphia Orchestra immediately invited her to appear at concerts in Philadelphia and the Carnegie Hall, New York in May 2007. The live recording of this concert was released by      Ondine in January. She has also appeared on stage as a guest performer in Detroit and Toronto, and in June 2009 she performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Other recent engagements of importance, besides Elias Tour with Thomas Quasthoff include the Lukas Passion by and under the direction of Krzysztof Penderecki at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, concerts at the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, concert performances of Idomeneo with Leopold Hager at the Luxembourg Philharmonic and Davidde Penitente in Portugal. Simona Šaturová has also performed at the Rheingau Musik Festival, Prague Spring, Herrenchiemsee Festspiele, Festival Internazionale di Musica e Arte Sacra Roma, Bachfesttagen as well as appearing on stage at the Vienna Spring Festival, Steierischer Herbst or Köthener Bachfesttage.     

Conductors with whom the soprano singer has worked include Sir Neville Marriner, Sylvain Cambreling, Jiri Belohlávek, Serge Baudo, Manfred Honeck, John Fiore, Martin Haselböck, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Adam Fischer and Gennady Roschdestwenski. She has also featured on CD recordings for the Supraphon, Orfeo and Classico labels, and for the Carus Verlag, for whom she made a recording of the premiere of Johann A. Hasse's Requiem and Miserere in 2005. This recording received the “Preisder Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” prize awarded by the German Record Critics. In autumn 2008 the soprano singer recorded a Haydn CD under Allessandro de Marchi with NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, followed in January 2009 by a CD with virtuoso Italian arias under Riccardo Frizza (for ORFEO).