This season, Estonian mezzo soprano Kadi Jürgens will make her house debut at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Belgium as Concepción, and her role debut as Carmen in Theatre Vanemuine in Estonia. Last summer she was awarded 3rd Prize and a Special Prize for Art Song in the 12th Klaudia Taev Competition for Young Opera Singers. She is also the laureate of the PLMF Music Trust award Young Singer 2018 by Marje and Kuldar Sink.
Kadi’s music studies began at Tallinn Music High School with violin and flute. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in classical singing from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EAMT), continued her vocal studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp (RCA) and has recently graduated from the International Opera Academy (IOA) in Ghent, Belgium.
Kadi has taken part in several masterclasses held by renowned opera singers and coaches from all around the world (Pille Lill, Wilma Vernocchi, Cynthia Makris, Margareta Brandt, Muriel Corradini, Charlotte Margiono, Lucienne Van Deyck, Dietrich Henschel, Hein Boterberg, Maciej Pikulski, and Kristian Attila a. o.). She has been given scholarships from Italy and Estonia to participate in Wilma Vernocchi’s masterclasses in Italy.
At the EAMT, Kadi sang opera roles such as La Maestra Delle Novizie (Suor Angelica by Puccini, in 2016), Mrs Grose (The Turn of the Screw by Britten, in 2016), Dido (Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, in 2016) and Orlando (Orlando by Händel, in 2018). In 2017 she made her debut at the Theatre Vanemuine in Estonia as Andromache in Lill’s Into the Fire and in 2019 at the RCA as Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring. At the IOA she has performed Carmen (La Tragédie de Carmen by Bizet, in 2020), Green 1 (Private View by van Parys, in 2021), Zerlina (Don Giovanni’s Last Supper, after Mozart, in 2021) and Lotte Lenya (LoveMusik by Weill, in 2021).
Kadi has also sung as a soloist with Flanders Symphony Orchestra (2021) and Oulu Symphony Orchestra (2018). Furthermore, she has worked with many conductors including Neeme Järvi, Benjamin Haemhouts, Filip Rathé, Martijn Dendievel, Giorgio Proietti, Michiel Delanghe, Markus Lehtinen, Paul Mägi, Taavi Kull, Ingrid Roose and directors such as Guy Joosten, Stephan Jöris, Hermann Keckeis, Benoît De Leersnyder, Stefaan Degand, Laura Kalle, Taago Tubin.
