BIOGRAPHY
" IN THE TITLE ROLE OF ARIODANTE, OLIVIA VERMEULEN'S COLORATURA SINGING WAS SO WONDERFULLY LUMINOUS AND CAPTIVATING THAT NO LISTENER WILL EVER FORGET IT. "
- ELEONORE BÜNING; FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
Praised for the “exceptional wealth of colors” of her voice (Opernwelt) and her singing of “exquisite, inexhaustible sweetness” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Olivia Vermeulen has established herself as one of the leading vocal artists in today’s classical music scene. Her performances span a wide range of repertoire, from early music to 21st-century works, stunning audiences worldwide.
After celebrating her debut at the Opéra national de Paris in 2019 in a landmark production of Scarlatti’s Il primo omicidio conducted by René Jacobs and directed by Romeo Castellucci, Olivia Vermeulen joined the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra for an international tour as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. She also returned to Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where in 2016 she had made her tumultuously celebrated debut in the lead role of Turno in Steffani’s Amor Vien dal Destino. In 2018, she debuted with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor conducted by Daniel Harding.
Other recent engagements include her debut at the Opernhaus Zurich as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Fyodor in Boris Godunov in Amsterdam under Pablo Heras-Casado, Musica and Messagiera in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona and Amanzio in Vivaldi’s Il Giustino at the Berlin Staatsoper.
Upcoming highlights include her debut at the Salzburg Festival in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony under Jordi Savall, her debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid as Idamante in Idomeneo, and her appearance as the alto soloist in Mozart’s Requiem in Tokyo with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. In 2025 she will also debut at the Oper Köln in the world premiere production of Die letzten Tage der Menschheit by Philippe Manoury.
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An additional focus of Olivia Vermeulen’s artistry is song and lieder, to which her highly acclaimed solo album "Dirty Minds” (2020) is testament, having received rave reviews worldwide and several prizes (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Klassiek). Together with her lied partner Jan Philip Schulze, she toured the album to the Oxford International Song Festival, deSingel in Antwerp, Brucknerhaus Linz, the Hugo Wolf Akademie Stuttgart, and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Her second album, Hello Darkness, was released in 2021.
Equally in demand as a soloist in Bach's Passions and Masses, she has worked with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Residentie Orkest The Hague for Bach's St. Matthew Passion, as well as with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer. In April 2024, she made her Boston debut with the Handel and Haydn Society under Masaaki Suzuki in Bach’s B Minor Mass.
A champion of a wide range of repertoire spanning five centuries, Olivia starred at the 2018 Bregenz Festival in the world premiere of Thomas Larcher’s opera Das Jagdgewehr. She has premiered songs by Wolfgang Rihm and debuted at the Ruhrtriennale Festival and Opéra Comique Paris in 2017 with the world premiere of Kein Licht by Philippe Manoury. In June 2023, she sang the role of Idris in John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, conducted by the composer himself.
Olivia Vermeulen has frequently worked with eminent conductors such as René Jacobs, Philippe Herreweghe, Pablo Heras-Casado, Daniel Harding, Iván Fischer, Marek Janowski, Andrea Marcon, Giovanni Antonini, Markus Stenz, Masaaki Suzuki and others. She has appeared with many of the world’s most distinguished orchestras like the Budapest Festival Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, and Camerata Salzburg, and has been invited to leading festivals including Aix-en-Provence Festival, Ruhrtriennale, Holland Festival, Munich Opera Festival, Musikfest Berlin, Rheingau Music Festival, and Salzburg’s Mozartwoche.
A native of the Netherlands, Olivia Vermeulen studied in Detmold, Germany, and in Berlin with Julie Kaufmann. She participated in masterclasses with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Andreas Scholl, Thomas Quasthoff, and Irwin Gage. Her recording of Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor (Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, BIS Records 2016) won awards and international praise, while her latest CD release of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Le concert des Nations and Jordi Savall also received great critical acclaim.
2024 | 2025
" In particular, Olivia Vermeulen repeatedly roused the audience to applause between scenes with her heroic and brilliant mezzo soprano, transmuting almost in the same breath into tenderness and resignation.
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- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
" ... AND THROUGH THE VOICE OF THE INCOMPARABLE MEZZO-SOPRANO OLIVIA VERMEULEN, WHO GAVE THE ACOUSTIC EXPERIENCE AND PROVED, THAT AN ALTO VOICE CAN BE CLEAR AS A BELL AND SO WONDERFUL, THAT IT JUSTIFIES THE FARTHEST JOURNEY. ... "
- NEUE MUSIK ZEITUNG
SCHEDULE
Upcoming Performances
Past Events
" The discovery in this production is Olivia Vermeulen. Her exquisite mezzo soprano timbre proffers an abundance of colours for the constant changes of emotion, and when she sings, heartrendingly and with inexhaustible breath, of her longing to die, time seems to stand still. " - Opernfreund
DISCOVER
Hello Darkness
– Solo Album, 2022
Dirty Minds
– Album, 2020
AUDIO
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CONTACT
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Machreich Artists Management
Alexander Brunner
Beatrixgasse 26/5/42
A-1030 Vienna
Austria
Tel: +43 (0)5 068 00 11
www.machreich-artists.com
brunner@machreich-artists.com
KulturKontor Artist Management
Regine Dierse
Papenhuder Str. 34
D-22087 Hamburg
Germany
Telefon +49 (0)40 357 193 80
Telefax +49 (0)40 357 19 32
www.kulturkontor.de
regine.dierse@kulturkontor.de
contact(at)oliviavermeulen.com