Austrian mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert is one of the most distinguished singers of her generation. Born into a musical family, she received early training in violin and piano before beginning voice lessons with her mother, soprano Sigrid Rennert, at the age of twelve. She studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Karlheinz Hanser and Charles Spencer, and received formative artistic impulses in masterclasses with Brigitte Fassbaender, Ann Murray and Helmut Deutsch. Sophie Rennert is a prizewinner of the International Mozart Competition Salzburg and the Innsbruck Cesti Competition for Baroque Singing, and was selected as a featured artist in the Vienna Konzerthaus’s Great Talents series.
Her guest engagements have taken her to renowned venues and concert halls including Theater an der Wien, Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Vienna Musikverein, Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, as well as to the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music. She has a particularly close artistic association with the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, where she regularly captivates audiences with expressive song recitals.
Her extensive repertoire reflects an exceptional stylistic versatility. On the opera stage, her roles include Carmen, Dorabella, Donna Elvira, Cherubino, Ruggiero, Nicklausse, Prince Orlofsky, Rosina, Hänsel, Angelina and Charlotte. Her concert repertoire ranges from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Mozart’s Requiem and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and works by Gustav Mahler. Her Baroque repertoire includes leading roles such as Vivaldi’s Irene (Tamerlano), Handel’s Piacere (Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno) and Cesti’s Gloria Austriaca/Giunone (Il Pomo d’Oro), while her repertoire also extends into contemporary music, including Peter Eötvös’s Angels in America (Harper Pitt) and Gottfried von Einem’s Der Besuch der alten Dame (Claire Zachanassian).
Sophie Rennert regularly collaborates with leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orquesta Nacional de España and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Her musical partners include conductors such as David Afkham, Ivor Bolton, Semyon Bychkov, Ottavio Dantone, Ádám Fischer, Philippe Jordan, Joana Mallwitz, Jordi Savall and Andreas Spering. In the field of song, she works with renowned pianists including Joseph Middleton, Graham Johnson, Ammiel Bushakevitz, Julius Drake and Helmut Deutsch.
The 2026/27 season takes Sophie Rennert to leading stages across Europe and features a number of significant debuts and return engagements. She makes an important house debut at Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels as Angelina in a new production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, directed by Daniel Kramer and conducted by Speranza Scappucci and Stefano Sarzani. In Antwerp, she takes on the title role in Berlioz’s Orphée under Francesco Corti, before returning to the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music at the end of the season as Apamia in A. Bononcini’s Tigrane under Ottavio Dantone.
On the concert platform, she appears as Vivaldi’s Rosmira alongside the Accademia Bizantina, with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Akamus) at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and in Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen. She also gives song recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, in Oxford, at the Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie in Stuttgart and in Frankfurt
Numerous recordings document her artistic work, including Leopold Mozart’s Missa Solemnis, Handel’s Lotario, Brahms songs with Graham Johnson, Vivaldi’s Tamerlano under Ottavio Dantone, and the album Von den Göttern weiß ich nichts, featuring vocal works by Uli Rennert. Together with pianist Joseph Middleton, Sophie Rennert recorded the Franz Schubert album Irrlichter, released by BIS Records in April 2026. Recorded at the Markus-Sittikus-Saal in Hohenems, the album received widespread critical acclaim and was awarded five stars and named a 'Vocal Choice' by BBC Music Magazine.