Mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen has established an international reputation as a compelling interpreter of the great symphonic and sacred repertoire, with Beethoven and Mahler at the heart of her work, alongside Brahms, Dvořák, Mendelssohn and Wagner. Combining warmth and richness of tone with musical intelligence and an instinctive communicative presence, she is a regular guest with many of Europe’s leading orchestras and conductors, while her longstanding affinity with Bach and the Baroque repertoire remains an equally important part of her artistic life.
Beethoven is a cornerstone of Sophie’s repertoire, with the Ninth Symphony, Missa Solemnis and Mass in C featuring prominently throughout her career. Her symphonic repertoire also includes Mahler’s Second and Third Symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde, Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody, Dvořák’s Requiem and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. At the heart of her work are longstanding artistic relationships with conductors including Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs and Frieder Bernius, alongside collaborations with Karina Canellakis, Teodor Currentzis, Iván Fischer, Daniel Harding, Pablo Heras-Casado, Kent Nagano, François-Xavier Roth and Markus Stenz.
Sophie is a regular guest with orchestras including the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, SWR Symphonieorchester, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Helsinki Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. Her deep affinity with Bach and the Baroque repertoire has led to regular collaborations with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Freiburger Barockorchester, B’Rock Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques and Kammerorchester Basel.
Recent highlights include Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Karina Canellakis at the Concertgebouw, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Maxim Emelyanychev, and Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with René Jacobs and the Kammerorchester Basel.
Forthcoming engagements include Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Residentie Orkest, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the SWR Symphonieorchester and François-Xavier Roth, Dvořák’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Philippe Herreweghe, alongside further performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis.
Opera has also played an important role in Sophie’s career. Recent appearances include the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at Teatro La Fenice and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier in Salzburg, with other engagements at houses including Teatro Real Madrid, Theater an der Wien and Opéra de Dijon. Forthcoming projects include Mistress Slender in Salieri’s Falstaff with René Jacobs and B’Rock Orchestra, with performances at BOZAR, the Elbphilharmonie and Kölner Philharmonie.
Sophie’s discography includes award-winning recordings of Bruckner’s Missa Solemnis with the RIAS Kammerchor, which received a Diapason d’Or, and the complete recording of Bach’s Luther Kantaten with Christoph Spering, awarded an ECHO Klassik.
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HANDEL: Aci, Galatea e Polifemo
Kammerorchester Basel, June 2026
Mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen offered an intimate and captivating portrayal of the ill-fated nymph Galatea.
Docenotas
Mezzo Sophie Harmsen, with more discreet means but great musicality, was an impeccably interpreted Galatea.
La Vanguardia
Sophie Harmsen gave a remarkable performance, singing with gusto and shining in the coloratura passages
Beckmesser
MENDELSSSOHN: Die erste Walpurgisnacht
Basque National Orchestra, May 2026
The work of mezzo Sophie Harms in the third part of the work Könnt ihr so verwegen handeln? (Is it possible to act so recklessly?) deserves special mention. She has a beautiful voice with a dark timbre and a beautiful volume. She was truly the brightest soloist in that session.
Argia
STRAUSS: Ariadne auf Naxos (Der Komponist)
La Fenice, Jun 2024
The Mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen recreates a desperate Komponist with clear voice, enough volume and with beautiful vocal colours.
Opera World
Sophie Harmsen's Komponist is genuinely human, capable of extremely captivating nuances that absolutely reach into the stomach of the spectator.
Nonsolocinema.com
SCHUMANN: Das Paradies und die Peri
Symphoniker Hamburg, September 2023
The rich magic of the music enfolds especially in the performance of Sophie Harmsen, the outstanding singer of the evening. Her noble mezzo soprano timbre flows warmly and supplely when she shows compassion for the dying youth, while she articulates the text naturally or astonishes and delights with an unexpected pianissimo. Her freedom and zest for expression is rarely matched by other soloists.
Marcus Stabler, Hamburger Abendblatt
La Clemenza di Tito (Annio)
Teatro Real, Madrid
"Sophie Harmsen's Annio was outstanding, splendid in her projection of high notes and in the way she conveyed her dramatic singing, always with a beautiful voice that shone especially bright in her aria "Tu fosti tradito""
Lectura y locura
"The singer we enjoyed most in terms of timbre, vocal colours, warmth, crispness of enunciation and insightfulness was the Canadian born mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen, who embodied a youthful and ever-ready Annio, completely convincing in gesture and bearing."
La Razon
STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier (Octavian)
Landestheater Salzburg, October 2022
Sophie Harmsen is a captivating Octavian. The silvery duets between Hofmann and Harmsen radiate brighter than the myriad of stars around them. This magic hour of vocal artistry in the four earthly hours running time of this opera culminates in the trio of the finale.
Der Standard Wien
Sophie Harmsen is a vocally powerful Octavian, extraordinarily virile in her acting.
Opera Online
Octavian is 17 years old. One could not have found a more authentic casting than Sophie Harmsen for this trouser role. With her gamine haircut you believe her to be a boy, she steals the show with her powerful, clear mezzosoprano, and also the disguise as Mariandel suits her wonderfully. She wittily and charmingly guides the events.
Kultur Online
Sophie Harmsen shines with an elegantly clear and noble mezzo and virile chutzpah.
NMZ
Sophie Harmsen perfectly guides her silvery top notes to target. One could nearly forget this is a mezzosoprano role. You see a young boy without any life experience, except the forbidden love towards the Marschallin, being thrown into a morally ailing demimonde into which he tumbles like an alien into this planetary set.
Drehpunkt Kultur
Sophie Harmsen Concert and Oratorio Repertoire
| J.S. Bach | Johannes-Passion; Matthäus-Passion |
|---|---|
| C.P.E. Bach | Magnificat |
| Beethoven | Sinfonie Nr. 9 |
| Brahms | Alt Rhapsodie op. 53 |
| Britten | A Charm of Lullabies |
| Bruckner | Missa Solemnis |
| Bizet | Adieux de l'hôtesse arabe |
| Caldara | Oratorio di San Giovanni Nepomuceno |
| Charpentier | Te Deum |
| de Falla | El sombrero de tres picos |
| Duruflé | Requiem |
| Dvoràk | Requiem |
| Hasse | Miserere in c-Moll |
| Haydn | Arianna a Naxos |
| Händel | Dixit Dominus (Sop II und Alt) |
| Händel/Mozart | Messias |
| Mahler | Das Lied von der Erde |
| Martin | Le vin herbé |
| F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy | Athalia |
| W.A. Mozart | Requiem |
| Myslivecek | La Passione di nostro signore |
| Nicolai | Messe in d-Moll |
| Pergolesi | Stabat Mater |
| Ravel | Cinq melodie populaires greques |
| Reger | Requiem |
| Respighi | Il Tramonto |
| Reutter | Motetto di tempore |
| Rolle | Matthäus Passion |
| Spohr | Die letzten Dinge |
| Rihm | Deus Passus (mezzosopran) |
| Rossini | Petite Messe Solennelle |
| Saint-Säens | Oratorio de Noël |
| Schreker | Fünf Gesänge für eine tiefe Stimme |
| Schubert | Numerous Masses |
| R. Schumann | Faust-Szenen (Mangel, Mater Samaritana, Mater Gloriosa, Schuld, Maria Aegyptica, Alt I) |
| Schnittke | Requiem |
| Telemann | Der Tag der Gerichts |
| Verdi | Requiem |
| Vivaldi | Gloria |
| Wagner | Wesendonck Lieder |
Sophie Harmsen Opera Repertoire
| G. Bizet | Carmen (Mercedes) |
|---|---|
| B. Britten | A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hermia) |
| F. Danzi | Der Berggeist (Marthe) |
| C.W. Gluck | Orphee et Euridice (Orphee*) |
| C. Gounod | Faust (Siebel*) |
| G.F. Händel | Alcina (Ruggiero*, Bradamante) |
| J. Haydn | La canterina (Don ettore) |
| E. Humperdinck | Hänsel und Gretel (Hänsel) |
| H. Huyssen | Masque (Prof. Dubuffet) |
| J. Massenet | Werther (Charlotte*) |
| C. Monteverdi | L’Incoronazione di Poppea: (Ottavia*, Nutrice) |
| W.A. Mozart | La Clemenza di Tito (Annio, Sesto*) |
| J. Myslivecek | L’Olimpiade (Argene) |
| J. Offenbach | Les Contes D‘Hoffmann (Nicklausse *) |
| H. Purcell | Dido and Aeneas (Dido, 2nd Woman, 1st & 2nd Witch, Sorceress) |
| J.P. Rameau | Hippolyte et Aricie (Phedre*) |
| T. Rayna | A Valley Song (Stella) |
| G. Rossini | Il barbiere di Sevilla (Rosina*) |
| R. Strauss | Der Rosenkavalier (Octavian), |
| G.P. Telemann | Otto (Mathilda) |
| J.R. Zumsteeg | Die Geisterinsel (Fabio) |
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