Bernarda Fink

Born in Buenos Aires to Slovenian parents, Bernarda Fink received her vocal and musical training at the Teatro Colón Superior Institute of Arts, where she has performed regularly since the beginning of her career.

Bernarda Fink has been invited by leading orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin and Dresden Staatskapellen, the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and prestigious baroque orchestras; she has sung under the baton of such renowned conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Sir Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, Georges Prêtre, Sir Simon Rattle, Franz Welser-Möst and others. With her wide repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century, she is one of the most highly sought after singers for both lyric and lieder repertoire. She has collaborated constantly and on many projects with Nikolaus Harnoncourt: their bond is documented by many television and recordings.

She had success on the operatic stage as Cecilio (Lucio Silla) under Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Vienna Theater, as Idamante (Idomeneo) in a production by Luc Bondy and Jesús López Cobos at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and as Irene (Theodora) under Ivor Bolton at the Salzburg Festivals. In concert productions under the baton of René Jacobs, she was Sesto (La clemenza di Tito) and Idamante: the resulting recordings have been repeatedly awarded. In June 2017 Bernarda Fink made her debut at the Vienna State Opera in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.

As a singer of Lieder, Bernarda Fink is well known in major music centers and has been a guest at major events at the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Schwarzenberg “Schubertiadi,” the Berlin Philharmonic, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, the Edinburgh Festival, Carnegie Hall in New York, and Alice Tully Hall.

Recent highlights include Lieder concerts in Cologne, Vienna, Madrid and Paris; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Mariss Jansons in Copenhagen and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons in Boston; Symphony No. 3 with Jakub Hrůša in Bamberg and Paris; a tour of South America with Camerata Salzburg; Dvořák’s Biblical Songs with Manfred Honeck in Prague and Dresden; Mahler’s Song of the Earth with the South Netherlands Philharmonic and Hans Graf in the Netherlands.

Bernarda Fink also devotes herself to the training of young people as a lecturer, for example at the Wiener Meisterkurse, the Austrian Arts Session in Ossiach, the YSP in Salzburg, the Festival Academy in Aix-en-Provence, or the Schubert-Institut in Baden bei Wien, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Carinthischen Musikakademie in Ossiach and the Fondation de Royaumont. She has been a jury member in the Wigmore Hall International Lied Competition, the Leipzig Bach Competition, the BBC Cardiff Singers of the World, the DAS LIED Competition, and the ARD-Musikwettbewerb in Munich. In the fall of 2019, Bernarda Fink taught voice as a lecturer for three months at Yale University.

The artist’s vast theatrical and concert repertoire is documented by a discography that has already exceeded sixty releases, covering a span from Monteverdi and Rameau to Schubert and Bruckner. Many of her discs have been honoured with prestigious awards such as the Diapason d’Or or the Grammy. Bernarda Fink collaborates closely with Harmonia Mundi for which she has recorded, among other things, Bach cantatas with the Freiburger Barockorchester, a solo album featuring the Lieder of Robert Schumann, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Berlin Academy of Early Music, and cantatas by Slovenian and Argentine composers together with Marcos Fink (Grammy nomination), an album of Dvořák music (together with Genia Kühmeier), and a solo album with Spanish songs with Anthony Spiri on piano. Recently an album with Lieder by Gustav Mahler was released, recorded together with Anthony Spiri on piano, the Gustav-Mahler Ensemble and the Tonkünstlerorchester Niederösterreich, under the direction of Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

In February 2006, the artist was awarded the Austrian Chancellor’s Austrian Order of Honor for Science and Art. In February 2013, Bernarda Fink and Marcos Fink received the Prešeren Foundation Award for their joint recording Slovenija! and the concerts that followed-this is the highest cultural award Slovenia can bestow. In September 2014, Bernarda Fink was awarded the title of Austrian Kammersängerin.