Christopher Sokolowski

Biography.

Recognized by the New York Times for his “solid, attractive tone,” tenor Christopher Sokolowski has performed a wide repertoire of concert and operatic works for international audiences. He has been a member of the ensemble of the Theater St. Gallen since the 2021/22 season and has since transitioned from a previously more lyrical repertoire into the Jugendlicher Heldentenor repertoire. In the 2022/23 season debuts as Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Siegmund (Die Walküre, "Der Ring an einem Abend"), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), and the tenor soloist in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem. ​He additionally makes his debut at the Staatsoper Hannover as Wagner/Neréo in Boito’s Mefistofele and sings his first Verdi Requiem with the Neues Zürcher Orchester in Luzern. The summer of 2023 will bring his debut with the Des Moines Metro Opera as the Prince in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges. In his first season in the ensemble of Theater St. Gallen, he performed roles including Dr. Richardson (Breaking the Waves), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), and Gastone (La traviata), in addition to guest performances at the Kölner Philharmonie with the Opernfestspiele Heidenheim in a concert performance of Die Fledermaus. 

In the 2019/20 season he sang the title role of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito in Bregenz while still in his second year of the Opernstudio of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In Stuttgart, he debuted many roles in the house in critically celebrated new productions: Wagner/Nerèo (Mefistofele), Le comte de Lerme (Don Carlos), der Bruder (Die sieben Todsünden), Zeremonienmeister (Die Liebe zu den Drei Orangen), and Don Curzio (Le nozze di Figaro); as well as roles in repertory productions of Carmen, Ariodante, Pique Dame, and Der Schauspieldirektor. With the Staatsoper Stuttgart Opernstudio he was also seen in concert at the Baden-Baden Festspiele and Opéra national du Rhin. Further performances with the Staatsoper Stuttgart in Bach’s Johannespassion, Britten’s Billy Budd and Death in Venice, and the Opernfestspiele Heidenheim in Wagner’s Tannhäuser were not performed due to the pandemic. 

In concert, he has performed often in New York and cities across the United States, Netherlands, Japan, Greece, and Germany in repertoire ranging from the baroque to world premieres, including much of the major oratorio and concert works of Bach, Britten, Handel, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Orff, Schubert, and Vivaldi. In 2022 he was awarded the Rohatyn Great Promise Award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition and the Hermann Leopoldi Musikpreis in Vienna's International Otto Edelmann Competition and in 2020 was a finalist in Innsbruck’s 11th International Cesti Competition. Additionally, he is a prizewinner for the Orpheus and American Prize vocal competitions. 

A native of New York’s Hudson Valley, Christopher Sokolowski completed his vocal studies at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music (M.M.) and the Purchase Conservatory (B.M.) and was a guest artist for the Tanglewood Music Center and the Fondation des TreillesAcadémie de la voix. 

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