Sonya Yoncheva

Yoncheva was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. From the age of 6, she was "working", according to her own words from an interview for Metropolis.[1] She studied piano and voice at the National School for Music and Dance in Plovdiv. During her teenage years, she hosted a Bulgarian television show about music.[2] She won several music competitions in Bulgaria in 2000 and 2001, including a joint win with her brother as "Singers of the Year 2000" in the "Hit-1" competition organised and produced by Bulgarian National Television.

She took advanced studies in classical singing with Danielle Borst at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève and obtained the master's degree in 2009.[3]

Yoncheva was an invited participant in William Christie's "Jardin des Voix" academy for young singers in 2007.[4] She has continued work in the baroque repertoire with Christie, and also with Emmanuelle Haïm.

Yoncheva was the female first-place winner of the 2010 Operalia competition.[5] In May 2011, she portrayed Cleopatra in a co-production of Giulio Cesare by the Atelier lyrique de Tourcoing and Opéra de Reims,[6] performances of which also took place at the Royal Opera of Versailles.[7] In June she performed in L'elisir d'amore as Adina as part of Festival Nuits Musicales Sainte Victoire in Peynier.[8][9]

Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera was in November 2013 when she stepped in as Gilda in Rigoletto, in advance of her previously scheduled official debut.[10] In 2014 at the Met, she sang her stage role debut as Mimì (La bohème) in November and shared the role of Violetta (La traviata) in December.[11] In 2015 she appeared as Desdemona in the season opening production of Otello the Metropolitan Opera[12] and in September 2016 she made her debut as Norma at the Royal Opera House, where she sang Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann in November of the same year.[13]

In June 2017 she made her debut at the Teatro alla Scala as Mimì in La bohème.[14] She made her role debut in the title role of Puccini's Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera for their 2017/18 season to great critical acclaim. Yoncheva set a record as first singer to appear in leading roles in three movie-theater broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera in one season (Tosca, Mimi in La bohème and Luisa Miller in the 2017/18 season).[15][16] Other role debuts in the 2017/18 season include Luisa Miller at the Metropolitan Opera and Élisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos at the Paris Opera. For her role debut as Imogene in Bellini's Il pirata at the Teatro alla Scala in June 2018, the first production of the piece after a legendary 1958 staging with Maria Callas as Imogene the press proclaimed that her performance would "surely see Yoncheva enter La Scala's hall of fame alongside Callas".[14][17] In summer 2018 Yoncheva sang the role of Poppea in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Salzburg Festival.

Yoncheva began the 2018/19 season performing the title role of Médée in a staging at Staatsoper Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Other performances in 2018/19 included Desdemona in Verdi's Otello and the title part of Iolanta at the Metropolitan Opera, Desdemona in a new production for Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall as well as Tosca at Staatsoper Berlin.

In Spring 2019, Sonya Yoncheva announced to be expecting her second child in Fall.[18] Therefore, the soprano does not perform from mid July to November 2019, before returning to the stage for Puccini Gala Concerts at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and in Sofia. In the 2019/20 season, she will also make her role debuts as Fedora in a new production at the Teatro alla Scala and as Manon Lescaut at the Metropolitan Opera, and will return as Tosca to the Wiener Staatsoper and Bayerische Staatsoper, as title role in Médée to the Staatsoper Berlin, as Mimì to the London Royal Opera House and as Imogene in Il pirata to the Teatro Real in Madrid.[19]

Yoncheva is a Rolex artist[20] and was named Medici.tv's 2017 Artist of the Year.[21] She is also the winner of the 2019 Readers Award of the International Opera Awards.[22]

She won a Young Artist of the Year award (Nachwuchskünstler/-in des Jahres) in 2015 Echo Klassik.[23] In 2016, she was awarded the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius for her "contribution to the field of art".[24] She was one of the recipients of the 13th annual Opera News Awards.[25] She was presented Award of the Year from the Círculo Críticos de Arte de Chile for her recital at the Teatro del Lago.[26]

Yoncheva married Venezuelan conductor Domingo Hindoyan in July 2014[27] and they live in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. The couple have a son, Mateo, born 6 October 2014.[2] In October 2019, their daughter Sophia was born.[15][28] Her younger brother Marin Yonchev is a former rock singer and is now appearing in operatic concerts alongside Yoncheva.[15][29]

Yoncheva is featured on commercial audio recordings on the Virgin Classics label.[30] In November 2013, she signed a recording contract with Sony Classical[4] and has released several solo CDs including:[31]

• 2015: Paris, mon amour, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana conducted by Frédéric Chaslin (Sony)
• 2017: Handel, Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro De Marchi (conductor) (Sony)
• 2018: The Verdi Album, Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Massimo Zanetti (Sony)

On video she appears in DVD releases of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria,[32][33] and of Pergolesi's Il Flaminio. Additionally, she is featured on Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" and Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" on Deutsche Grammophon.[31] She can be seen as Desdemona in the Met Opera's HD streaming video of Otello (2015).[34] In 2016, she substituted for Anna Netrebko in Covent Garden's controversial season opener of Bellini's Norma, issued on DVD by Opus Arte.[35]

• Sonya Yoncheva: Sempre Libera (2018). directed by Ema Konstantinova and Georgi Toshev. premiered at the 32nd Kinomania Film Festival in Sofia on 26 November 2018.[36]

• Official website
• Sonya Yoncheva at IMDb
• Sonya Yoncheva at Opéra national de Paris
• Sonya Yoncheva at Sony Classical
• Sonya Yoncheva at Medici.tv