Belgian-Portuguese mezzo-soprano CATARINA SERENO is a versatile singer, at ease in both contemporary music and the classical and romantic repertoire.

 

Catarina began her career as a lyric soprano before transitioning to mezzo-soprano, performing the roles, to name a few, Maria in Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires, Irma in Charpentier's Louise, Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Medoro in Stefani's Orlando Generoso, and the monologue La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc.

 

In the realm of contemporary opera, highlights include Circe in Gieshoff's Viagron for the Tete-a-Tete Festival and Voce 4 in Berio's Laborintus II with LSO St Luke's.

 

In the oratorio repertoire she performed Mozart's Requiem, Bach's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Gloria, Mozart's Vesperae Solennes, and Mozart's Missa Brevis K25 which was broadcast on British radio BBC 4.

 

Catarina nurtures a particular interest for the recital and chamber music repertoire, and has performed among other venues, at Marvão International Music Festival, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Museum, Musicians United of Brussels, the Aveiro Music Festival – Antena 2, the Great Hall of the CNM in Brussels, St Martins-in-the-Fields, the Windsor Society, and collaborated with cello octet Cellophony.

 

Alongside her solo career, Catarina regularly collaborates as a freelancer with choruses of the La Monnaie and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen opera houses, performing with directors such as Dmitri Tcherniakov, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damiano Michieletto, Florentina Holzinger, Alain Platel, Olivier Pi, and conductors such as Alain Altinoglu, Evelino Pidò, Timur Zangiev, among others.

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A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London as a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholar, she began her studies in Singing Pedagogy at the School of Arts of the Catholic University of Porto.

 

During her training, she participated in masterclasses with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Sarah Walker, Malcolm Martineau, Elizabeth Connell, and is also a graduate of ENOA.