Jana Sýkorová

Soloist of the Prague State Opera

Jana Sýkorová studied at the Prague Conservatory in the class of Professor Brigita Šulcová. In 1997 she won the first prize at the International Singing Contest of Carlsbad and, one year later, she won a prestigious European award, “Förderpreis für junge Künstler”. During her studies, she made her debut in the National Theatre in Prague and in the Prague State Opera where she became a soloist after a one-year contract with the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec. Since 1999 she sang the main parts in two stagings of Bizet’s Carmen, in the world premiere of Viklicky’s Phaedra, in the Czech premiere of Vivaldi’s opera Orlando Furioso and in the world premiere of the work by a French composer Laurent Petitgirard Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man. Her further roles at the stage of the Prague State Opera include Phenena (Nabucco), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Suzuki (Madame Butterfly), Ulrike (A Masked Ball) and finally Anitra in Grieg’s Peer Gynt. Since 2002, Jana Sýkorová is a permanent guest of both the National Theatre in Prague and the Janacek Opera in Brno. She regularly collaborates with our prominent symphonic orchestras; she gave concerts in France, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia and Japan. As a soloist of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra she also appeared in the Tokyo Suntory Hall. She was twice among the preliminary nominations for the Thalia Prize and once among the nominations for the Alfred Radok Prize. She received international critic acclaim for her rendition of the Elephant man during the French premiere in 2002 that was subsequently published as DVD. In 2007 she made a successful debut in the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Maddalena (Rigoletto) and she returns to London in 2008 to appear as Mercedes in Bizet’s Carmen.