SYDNEY BAEDKE

Noted by Opera Canada as a "rising star to watch", Canadian soprano Sydney Baedke has been described as possessing an “impressively rich” and "exquisitely lyric" instrument (London Unattached, The Guardian). Her career has seen emerging and principal artist engagements across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Lauded as “a singer to be reckoned with” (Times Colonist) she is making a name for herself as an artist of distinction in a wide breadth of repertoire.

 

Recent appearances include her role and company debut as a “well-projected, vocally pure, and moving” Contessa Almaviva (Opera Magazine) for Pacific Opera Victoria’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Ma Zegner in Mazzoli’s Proving Up with Ammolite Opera. She also appeared as the soprano soloist in Bruckner’s Te Deum in her Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra debut, appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and won 1st prize in Edmonton Opera’s prestigious 2023/24 Rumbold Vocal Prize Competition.

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​Additionally, 2023/24 saw Sydney perform staples of her repertoire as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Handel’s Messiah with Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeur des Mélomanes and Orchestre Classique de Montréal respectively. She looks forward to reprising both works in 2024/25, for Ensemble Caprice’s Beethoven Nine in her Québec City debut at Palais Montcalm and Montréal’s Maison Symphonique, as well as her debut with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra for Messiah.

 

Sydney's 2022/23 season comprised of successful role & company debuts, including her debut at London' Royal Opera House in Oliver Mears' critically acclaimed production of The Rape of Lucretia co-produced with Britten Pears Arts, for which she was praised for her "passionate & hauntingly sad" and "unmistakeably moving" portrayal of the Female Chorus (Plays to See, Opera Today), as well as her debut as Musetta in La bohème with Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeur des Mélomanes at Montreal’s Maison Symphonique, for which she was hailed as a “revelation” for her “agile & seductive voice, projected with notorious assurance, strength, & efficiency”. (Le Devoir, Atuvu.ca) Additional recent engagements include her role debut as Mimì (La bohème) with ICAV and Orchestre Classique de Montréal, and her Aldeburgh Festival debut, where she was honored to premiere a recently discovered work by Benjamin Britten through her ongoing young artist partnership with Britten Pears Arts.

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Named one of Canada’s top emerging musicians under 30 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney was a 2021 Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist, covering Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and appearing as Antonia in an excerpt from Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Canadian debuts include Beatrice in Heggie's Three Decembers at Opera on the Avalon and starring in the title role of Brott Opera’s digital, abridged 2021 production of Estacio's iconic Canadian opera, Filumena. She made her professional debut in 2019 as La Fortuna & Valletto in Tim Albery’s critically acclaimed production of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where she also covered Gilda in Rigoletto as a member of the Gerdine Young Artist Program.

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Sydney is a Regional Finalist & three-time prize winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was a 2019/20 member of the Royal Conservatory of Music's Rebanks Family Fellowship Program. She is on the roster of Dean Artists Management.