Golda Schultz

South African soprano Golda Schultz is internationally hailed as one of today’s most talented and versatile artists; as at home in leading operatic roles as she is as featured soloist with the world’s foremost orchestras and conductors, she garners consistent praise for a fresh, radiant stage personality and lustrous tone. BR-Klassik wrote of her recent role debut as Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz at Bayerische Staatsoper: “Her voice is warm, natural, focused, it glows – a voice whose emotional power and beauty no one can resist. This was world class.”

In the 2021/2022 season Golda Schultz adds two new roles to her repertoire: Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress which she sings at the Metropolitan Opera under Susanna Mälkki, and Adina in L’elisir d’amore which will mark her debut at Opéra national de Bordeaux under Nil Venditti. At Bayerische Staatsoper, she will appear as both Agathe and Contessa Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), the latter role she also sings at the Metropolitan Opera under Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

On the concert platform, Schultz will open the season with Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi in Mahler and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel in Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder.  She sings Mendelssohn’s Elias with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Andris Nelsons, Mozart’s Requiem as part of Salzburger Osterfestspiele under Christian Thielemann, Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and debuts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, also under Rouvali, in Strauss’ Brentano Lieder.

A committed recitalist, Schultz and collaborative pianist Jonathan Ware appear this season in Berlin, Köln, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Halifax, NS in ‘This be her verse’: a programme exploring the worlds and inspirations of female composers from the Romantic era to present day, including a commission by Kathleen Tagg and Lila Palmer.

Trained at New York’s Juilliard School and Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opernstudio, Schultz found immediate success on both sides of the Atlantic through operatic appearances including Contessa Almaviva at Wiener Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at Salzburger Festspiele and New National Theatre Tokyo, Clara in Jake Heggie’s It’s A Wonderful Life at San Francisco Opera, Liù (Turandot) at Wiener Staatsoper and Bayerische Staatsoper, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at Teatro alla Scala, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Nanetta (Falstaff), Clara (Porgy and Bess) and Sophie at The Metropolitan Opera and Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) at Salzburger Festspiele.

In 2020, Golda Schultz was featured soloist of The Last Night of the BBC Proms and, together with Dalia Stasevska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, their specially-curated programme was broadcast live on radio and television to a global audience of millions. Other recent concert highlights include a remarkable week with the Los Angeles Philharmonic during which she joined Esa-Pekka Salonen for Sibelius’ Luonnotar, Gustavo Dudamel for Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, and Zubin Mehta for Mahler’s Symphony No.2.  With The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst she performed Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten in Cleveland and at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and in Mozart’s Requiem she debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Last season, Golda Schultz joined Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in an all-Mozart gala under Riccardo Minasi and she debuted at the Edinburgh International Festival in Errollyn Wallen’s new work Dido’s Ghost in the summer of 2021.