Katia Ledoux (born 18 July 1990) is a French mezzo-soprano.

Life

Born in Paris, Ledoux grew up in Vienna, Austria, and took violin lessons before beginning to sing at the age of six, joining the Schubert Sängerknaben. At the age of sixteen, she entered the preparatory class of the

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university established in 1817 located in Vienna. With a student body of over three thousand, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, and one of t ...

, then left Vienna in 2016 to study with Ulf Bästlein at the University of the Arts in the city of

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

where she made her debut at the Steirischer Herbst contemporary music festival as well as the

Graz Opera The Graz Opera (German: Oper Graz) is an Austrian opera house and opera company based in Graz. The orchestra of the opera house also performs concerts as the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra (''Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester''). History Opera h ...

. For the 2019/20 season, as well as 2020/21, she was part of the International Opera Studio of the

Zürich Opera House The Zurich Opera House () is an opera house in the Swiss city of Zurich. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zurich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to Ballett Zürich. I ...

where she performs numerous roles.

Career

Before even finishing her studies, Ledoux made her debut at the

Dutch National Opera The Dutch National Opera (DNO; formerly De Nederlandse Opera, now De Nationale Opera in Dutch) is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a m ...

in 2019 as Genevieve in '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' directed by

Olivier Py Olivier Py (; born 24 July 1965 in Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes) is a French stage director, actor and writer. Career In 1997, Py became director of the Centre dramatique national d'Orléans. In 2007, he became director of the Théâtre de l'Odéon i ...

with the

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (, ) is a Dutch symphony orchestra, established in 1888 at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). It is considered one of the world's leading orchestras. It was known as the Concertgebouw Orchestra u ...

conducted by

Stéphane Denève Stéphane Denève (born 24 November 1971) is a French conductor. He is currently music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the New World Symphony. Biography Denève was born in Tourcoing, France, and graduated ...

. She came back to Amsterdam in 2021 for the world premiere of ''How Anansi freed the stories of the world'' by Neo Muyanga and in 2022 for another world premiere ''Eurydice - die liebenden blind'' by

Manfred Trojahn Manfred Trojahn (born 22 October 1949) is a German composer, flutist, conductor, writer and academic teacher. Career Trojahn was born Cremlingen in Lower Saxony and began his musical studies in 1966 in orchestra music at the music school of Brau ...

. During the 2020-21 pandemic, the Dutch National Opera recorded and streamed Rossini's full'' Petite Messe Solenelle'' with the

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra The Netherlands Philharmonic () is a Dutch symphony orchestra based in Amsterdam. History The Netherlands Philharmonic was formed as the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985 from the merger of three orchestras: the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orc ...

in which Ledoux performed the alto solo. In 2019, Ledoux also joined the International Opera Studio at the

Zürich Opera Zurich Opera (Opernhaus Zürich) is a Swiss opera company based in Zurich. The company gives performances in the Zurich Opera House. History The first performance at the current theatre occurred on 30 September 1891, with a production of Wagner's ...

where she worked with many big names of the industry including

Cecilia Bartoli Cecilia Bartoli Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI (; born 4 June 1966) is an Italian mezzo-soprano widely known in the music of Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini, George Frideric Handel, Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart, Gioachino Ross ...

, Laurence Cummings,

Jakub Hrůša Jakub Hrůša (born 23 July 1981 in Brno) is a Czech conductor. He is chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony. Education Hrůša is the son of the architect . There were no professional musicians in his family who were drawn mainly from technica ...

Barrie Kosky Barrie Kosky (born 18 February 1967) is an Australian theatre and opera director. Based at the Komische Oper Berlin, he has worked internationally. Biography Kosky was born in Melbourne, the grandson of Jewish emigrants from Europe. He attended ...

, Jakub Orliński or Dmitri Tcherniakov. Since she has returned twice to Zurich: to sing Gertrude in

Ted Huffman Ted may refer to: Names A shortened form of the following: * Edmund * Edward * Thaddeus * Theodore (given name) Art, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Ted, a character in the post-apocalyptic short story ''I Have No Mouth, a ...

's ''

Roméo et Juliette ''Roméo et Juliette'' (, ''Romeo and Juliet'') is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on ''Romeo and Juliet'' by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Ly ...

'' in 2023 and Junon in Jetske Mijnssen's ''

Platée ''Platée'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto ''Platée ou Junon jalouse'' (''Plataea, or Juno Jealous'') by Jacques Autr ...

'' conducted by

Emmanuelle Haïm Emmanuelle Haïm (; born 11 May 1962) is a French harpsichordist and conductor with a particular interest in early music and Baroque music. Early life, student and assistant years Haïm was born and grew up in Paris, and was raised Catholic alt ...

in 2024. In 2021, she traveled to Russia to sing the role of Cornelia in ''

Giulio Cesare ''Giulio Cesare in Egitto'' (; ; HWV 17), commonly known as , is a dramma per musica (''opera seria'') in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724. The libretto was written by Nicola Francesco Haym ...

'' with the

Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1951 by Samuil Samosud, as the Moscow Youth Orchestra for young and inexperienced musicians, acquiring its current name in 1953. It is most associated wit ...

under Christopher Moulds. 2022 marked her debut at the

Staatsoper Stuttgart The Staatsoper Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Opera) is a German opera company based in Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart serves as its resident orchestra. History Performances of operas, ballet an ...

where she interpreted Ježibaba in Bastian Kraft's ''

Rusalka In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalki; , plural: русалки; , plural: ''rusałki'') is a female entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water. It has counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as th ...

'' conducted by

Oksana Lyniv Oksana Yaroslavivna Lyniv (; born 6 January 1978) is a Ukrainian conductor, since 2022 music director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. She founded the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in 2016. She conducted on 25 July 2021 the opening of t ...

In 2022 Katia Ledoux joined the ensemble of the

Vienna Volksoper The Vienna Volksoper (''Volksoper'' or ''Vienna People's Opera'') is an opera house in Vienna, Austria. It produces three hundred performances of twenty-five German language productions of opera, operetta, musicals, and ballet, during an annual s ...

Other

Ledoux became a viral phenomenon in January 2023 when multiple international newspapers, radios and websites reported on her jumping in for two roles in one evening, including one for a male tenor colleague during a performance of ''

Orpheus in the Underworld ''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''Orpheus in Hell'' are English names for (), a comic opera with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed as a two-act "op ...

'' at the

. Some noted that this was a historic first.

Awards

* First prize in the Austrian competition In 2008 * Finalist of the "Ferruccio Tagliavini" competition in 2017 * Recipient of the "Bourse of the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

" in 2018; * Press Award of the

International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch The International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch (IVC); is a music competition for classical singing founded in 1954. It is the only classical vocal competition in the Netherlands that also focuses on opera, oratorio and Lied. This yearly eve ...

, Netherlands, 2018. * First prize of the "Nordfriesischer Liedpreis" competition. * Oratorio-Lied Prize of the " Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition" in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in 2022

Recordings

* 2023: ''La princesse de Trébizonde'' by

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...

with the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

and

Paul Daniel Paul Daniel (born 5 July 1958) is an English conductor. Biography Early life Daniel was born in Birmingham. As a boy, he sang in the choir of Coventry Cathedral, where he received musical training; then studied music at King's College, Cambri ...

for

Opera Rara Opera Rara is a London-based opera company and recording label which specialises in recording and performing forgotten operatic repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1970 by bel canto enthusiasts Patric Schmid and Don Whi ...

(as Paola).

References

External links

*
Katia Ledoux on operabase.com

Katia Ledoux on the official website of the Graz Opera

Portrait of Katia Ledoux by agence TACT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ledoux, Katia French operatic mezzo-sopranos 1990 births Living people Singers from Paris 21st-century French women opera singers University of Music and Performing Arts Graz alumni