christopher sokolowski

American tenor Christopher Sokolowski has been praised by Ôlyrix for his “technical maturity well beyond his years,” his “shimmering velvet voice,” and his “Wagnerian power and a stage savvy.” In the upcoming 2023/24 season he will make his debut as the title role in Verdi’s Ernani at the Theater St. Gallen and perform Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Theater Winterthur. 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. 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 in Bregenz while still in his second year of the Opernstudio of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In Stuttgart, he debuted many roles with the company in critically celebrated new productions of Mefistofele, Don Carlos, Die sieben Todsünden, Le nozze di Figaro, and Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen, 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. Further productions in Stuttgart of Bach’s Johannespassion, Britten’s Billy Budd and Death in Venice, as well as with the Opernfestspiele Heidenheim in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, were not performed due to the pandemic.

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 and 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, he completed his vocal studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music (M.M.) and the Purchase Conservatory (B.M.), and was a guest artist for the Tanglewood Music Center and the Fondation des Treilles Académie de la voix.