The contralto Sonja Runje completed her vocal studies at the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb with distinction. Since then, she has performed internationally in a wide-ranging operatic and concert repertoire.
Recent engagements have included Erenice in a concert performance of Caldara’s Il Venceslao alongside Max Emanuel Cencic and {oh!} Orkiestra under Martyna Pastuszka at the Theater an der Wien; Farnace in Mozart’s Mitridate in Lausanne; the title role in Griselda with the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra under Benjamin Bayl at the Theater an der Wien; the title role in Giulio Cesare at the Cologne Opera with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne under Rubén Dubrovsky; Counsel in Handel’s oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth at the Theater an der Wien; Bach’s St John Passion and Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Zagreb; as well as the Croatian Mass by Boris Papandopulo at the Prinzregententheater in Munich.
In addition, she has appeared as Egeo in Handel’s Teseo at the Halle Handel Festival; as Bradamante in Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival; as Erenice at the Tage Alter Musik in Herne and at the Eufonie Festival in Warsaw; and as Angelo di giustizia in Galuppi’s La caduta di Adamo at the Theater an der Wien and at the Musiikkitalo Helsinki.
The versatile contralto regularly collaborates with renowned conductors, including George Petrou, Christian Curnyn, Rubén Dubrovsky, Benjamin Bayl, Martyna Pastuszka, Francesco Corti and Aapo Häkkinen.
