Елизабет Офенбьок

For the philharmonic concert given at Ruse on 19 September 2009, Elisabeth Ofenböck appeared as soloist with the orchestra of the State Opera Rousse, in a programme she shared with Yosif Radionov. She comes from Katzelsdorf, near Wiener Neustadt, and sang first in a youth choir and then, at thirteen, in the church choir her father directed. After the Matura she read medicine for six semesters while training at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in musical theatre, jazz and tap dance and acting, taking private lessons in classical singing and a musical course with Susi Nicoletti. Work for Austrian radio and television and in musical theatre followed; her first classical role was Valencienne in Die lustige Witwe, which she sang on tour across Austria, and further engagements took her to stages in Germany and Switzerland.