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The Canadian soprano, Agnes Zsigovics, is currently completing her Masters in Voice Performance at the University of Toronto. She spent two summers in Stuttgart, Germany singing and touring with the prestigious Festival Ensemble under the direction of Helmuth Rilling. Her choral experience includes the International Bach Festival Choir, Theatre of Early Music, Macmillan Singers and Counterpoint Chorale.
Agnes Zsigovics' solo performances range from George Frideric Handel's Messiah with the Windsor Symphony, Chorus Niagara and Oakville Choral Society and J.S. Bach's Cantatas under Helmuth Rilling, to Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, Ralph Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem and Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols. She has sung Papagena in the Magic Flute and is work-shopping a new opera, Vanity and the Goddess Sarasvati, with the Queen of Puddings Opera Company. Some of her most recent engagements include Felix Mendelssohn's Lobgesang with the Grand Philharmonic Choir, G.F. Handel's Gloria for Soprano as well as Nicolaus Bruhns' Ich liege und Schlafe in the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. She has also recently performed J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with the Peterborough Singers, J.S. Bach's Cantatas BWV 4 and BWV 78 with the Ottawa Bach Choir under the direction of Dr. Lisette Canton, Schubert's Mass in G Major with the Annex Singers, J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) with Dr. Julian Wachner in Montreal, as well as the St. John Passion (BWV 245) with the Cellar Singers under the direction of Robert Cooper and G.F. Handel's Messiah with the Bach Elgar Choir conducted by Howard Dyck.
Agnes Zsigovics appears with leading orchestras and choirs across Canada. In November 2007 she made her debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) under the direction of Maestro Helmuth Rilling. This fall (2008) she went on tour to South America with Daniel Taylor and the Theatre of Early Music, which included concerts in Rio and Sau Paulo, Brazil and Lima, Peru.
Last October (2008) Agnes Zsigovics was a guest artist at the Soundstreams' Byzantine Festival, where she performed Micheal Osterle's Chaucer Canticles with British soprano Patricia Rozario. She was also the soloist in the Toronto Bach Festival's St. John Passion (BWV 245), again under Maestro Helmuth Rilling. In summer 2007 she was guest soloist at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival with Daniel Taylor's Theatre of Early Music, where she performed in concerts with Nancy Argenta, Daniel Taylor, James Bowman and Charles Daniels; her performance was called "ravishing" (Ottawa Citizen). Other engagements in 2007 included A Lute Song Recital with Daniel Taylor in Quebec, G.F. Handel's Gloria for soprano in Toronto, G.F. Handel's Messiah with the Bach Elgar Choir, Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Niagara, Mozart's Coronation Mass and Requiem, J.S. Bach's Cantatas BWV 4, BWV 71 and BWV 84, Dietrich Buxtehude’s Schlagt Kunstler die Pauken and Poulenc's Gloria. Her additional solo performance credits include: Schubert’s Mass in G Major, Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, J.S. Bach’s Cantatas BWV 23, BWV 106, BWV 137 & BWV 140, and R. Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem.
Agnes Zsigovics has been teaching a highly successful course on Italian opera for the Continuing Studies Department at the University of Toronto since 2003, and gives vocal technique workshops.
This fall (2008), Agnes Zsigovics appears in duet with Daniel Taylor on the CD 'The Voice of Bach' released on the Sony Classical/BMG Masterworks label on October 1, 2008. She also appears on The Ottawa Bach Choir’s most recent CD entitled 'Jese meine Freude' which was released on November 28, 2008. |
