Fanie Antonelou

Has studied singing, piano, and music theory in Athens. She continued her postgraduate studies at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart under the guidance of Prof. Dunja Vejzovic and Prof. Ulrike Sonntag. She obtained a Master’s degree with honors in Lied, class of Prof. Cornelis Witthoefft, and continued her studies at the Opera School of the same institution. In February 2009 was finalist at the lied competition «Schubert und die Musik der
Moderne» in Graz. 

Her repertoire extends from early to contemporary music. Her elegant soprano voice and her distinctive timbre have assisted her to crossover repertoire of diverse epochs with great success. She has collaborated with the following ensembles as Il Gusto barocco, L’Arpa festante, the Barockorchestra La Banda, Solistenensemble Stimmkunst, Hymnus-Chorknaben, Ensemble Sarband, and Ex silenzio. She has worked together with conductors and soloists such as Helmut Rilling, Kay Johannsen, Jorg Halubek, Antonino Fogliani, Timo Handschuh, Martin Gester. 

Her operatic career breakthrough occurred when conductor Teodor Currentzis recognized her artistry and chose to sing the role of Susanna in his new and highly anticipated Sony Classical recording of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (2014; ECHO Klassik Award as The Best Recording of the Year: 17th/18th century opera). Earlier she sung as Susanna and Barbarina in production by Philipp Himmelmann (2012, Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre). In February 2014 she toured with the musicAeterna orchestra and chorus together with an international ensemble of soloists under the baton of Currentzis (Perm, Berlin, Athens, Paris, Lisbon) performing concert versions of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas and Handel’s psalm setting of Dixit Dominus. With the same program, Antonelou will perform in November at the festival «Diaghilev. P. S.» (St. Petersburg).

Previous operatic performances include the role of Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Ines (Il trovatore), Giulia (La scala di seta), Berenice (L’occasione fa il ladro), Monica (The Medium) and Cobweb (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), as well as Zofe in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg. 

In March 2005 she won the Grand Prix «Maria Callas» in the category Oratorio-Lied at the international «Maria Callas» competition in Athens. She also won the «Frankfurter Mendelssohn Preis» twice, in 2008 and 2009.