American tenor Christopher Sokolowski has been praised for his “shimmering velvet voice,” “technical maturity well beyond his years,” and “Wagnerian power and stage savvy” (Ôlyrix). In the 2023/24 season he made his debut as the title role in Verdi’s Ernani at the Theater St. Gallen to great acclaim, with the press praising him as an ideal casting (Oper! Magazin, Kronenzeitung), additionally calling him “an extremely convincing, intense interpreter of Ernani, […] able to fill the role with natural, perfect vocal support and a dynamic, precisely nuanced tone” (Oper Aktuell), “an incredibly agile performer … [with] a highly individual timbre, a well-developed middle range and a radiant high register” (Das Opernglas), “giving the role a vibrant power and a compelling, sometimes almost wild presence” (Ostschweizer Kultur).
Since his transition to the dramatic tenor Fach he has performed in St. Gallen as Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Siegmund (Die Walküre, “Der Ring an einem Abend”), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), and the tenor soloist in a scenic production of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, for which Polish magazine Ruch Muzyczny writes “Christopher Sokolowski has the talent, personality, and makings of a great spinto tenor.” He additionally made debuts at the Staatsoper Hannover as Wagner and Neréo in Boito’s Mefistofele and at Oper Frankfurt as Ken in Vito Žuraj’s Blühen, stepping in for a colleague at 24-hours' notice to sightread the atonal modern score. In the summer of 2023, he performed the Prince in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges at Des Moines Metro Opera, “unleashing torrents of gleaming sound, each phrase more impressive than the last” (Opera Today).
In the 2019/20 season he sang the title role of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito at the Bregenz Theater while still in his second year of the Staatsoper Stuttgart Opera Studio. In Stuttgart, he debuted many roles with the company in critically celebrated new productions of Mefistofele (Wagner and Neréo), Don Carlos (Le comte de Lerme), Die sieben Todsünden (der Bruder), Le nozze di Figaro (Don Curzio), and Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen (Zeremonienmeister), as well as roles in repertory productions of Carmen, Ariodante, Pikovaya dama, and Der Schauspieldirektor. With the Staatsoper Stuttgart he was also seen in concert at the Baden-Baden Festspiele and the Opéra National du Rhin.
A grand finalist of the Paris Opera Competition, he performed Zandonai and Wagner at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées to great acclaim. He was awarded the Rohatyn Great Promise Award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition, the Hermann Leopoldi Musikpreis in Vienna’s International Otto Edelmann Competition, and was a grand finalist in Innsbruck’s International Cesti Competition. In concert he has performed often in New York and cities across the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, and Japan in repertoire ranging from the baroque to world premieres, including much of the major oratorio and concert works of Bach, Britten, Handel, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Orff, Schubert, and Vivaldi.
A native of New York’s Hudson Valley, Christopher Sokolowski completed his vocal studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music (M.M.) and the Purchase Conservatory (B.M.). He was a guest artist for the Tanglewood Music Center and the Fondation des Treilles Académie de la voix.
July 2023 • Des Moines Metro Opera
“Sokolowski navigated the ever changing and equally absurd moods of the Prince with finesse…Sokolowski’s heroic tenor voice turned the hapless Prince into a compelling hero, his clear tone and skillful technique making the most of Prokofiev’s score.” — Schmopera
“Mr. Sokolowski is all goofy puppy dog, with unerring comic instincts, unleashing torrents of gleaming sound, each phrase more impressive than the last.” — Opera Today
April 2023 • Konzert und Theater St. Gallen
“Christopher Sokolowski has the talent, personality, and makings of a great spinto tenor.” — Ruch Muzyczny
“The vocal soloists were exceptional, above all the clarity of tenor Christopher Sokolowski.” — Ostschweizerinnen
“The demanding solo parts, confidently to ravishingly mastered by [the soloists] were given a very concrete fate.” — St. Galler Tagblatt