Kristel Pärtna

Soprano Kristel Pärtna started her musical studies at Rakvere Music School in piano with Tõnu Klomann. In 2000, she studied singing with Urve Tauts (preparatory course of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) and continued with Rostislav Gurjev at Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, obtaining her Master’s degree in 2011. In 2009–2010, she was an Erasmus exchange student at Sibelius Academy in Finland in the singing class of Anssi Hirvonen.

In 2010–2012, Kristel Pärtna was a member of Estonian National Opera’s opera academy for young singers and in 2012, she studied under the supervision of Sherman Lowe and Stefania Bonfadelli at Rodolfo Celletti Belcanto Academy in Italy within the Pille Lill Music Fund Young Talents Program. During the studies in Italy, Kristel Pärtna participated in opera festival Festival della Valle d'Itria, performing as Euridice in Luigi Rossi’s opera L'Orfeo, immagini di una lontananza (DVD Festival della Valle d’Itria, 2012) and covering the role of Mandane in Johann Adolph Hasse’s opera Artaserse. She was also a soloist in Arvo Pärt’s „Stabat Mater“ and performed in chamber music concert. Additionally, she has taken part in master courses of Eva Märtson, Sonia Prina, Roberta Mameli, Wilma Vernocchi, Kaludi Kaludov and others.

Since 2012, Kristel Pärtna is the soloist of the Estonian National Opera. Her roles include Norina (Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale), Marfa (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride), Lagle (Rasmus Puur’s The Colours of Clouds), Gilda (Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto), Christel (Carl Zeller’s The Bird Seller), Adina (Gaetano Donizetti’s L'Elisir d'amore), Armida (Georg Friedrich Händel’s Rinaldo), Cleopatra (Händel’s Giulio Cesare), Leonora (Paul Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner), Mademoiselle Silberklang (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor), Mercédès (George Bizet’s Carmen), Violetta (Verdi’s La Traviata), Susanna (Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro), Oscar (Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera), A milliner (Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, concert-performance), Zdenka (Richard Strauss’s Arabella, concert-performance), Clotilde (Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, concert-performance) and 1st Flower Maiden (Richard Wagner’s Parsifal). In 2013, Estonian National Opera gave guest performances at the Grand Opera of Belarus, where Pärtna sang Violetta. She has also appeared at Finnish National Opera as Papagena in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte .

In 2010, Kristel Pärtna sang Page in Wagner’s Lohengrin at Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland and has performed on the stage of the Vanemuine Theatre as The 1st Boy in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She has also participated in the performances of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre Opera Studio: Arminda (Mozart’s La finta giardiniera), Mari’s voice (Age Hirv’s Fire Enchanter) and The 1st boy (Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte).

Additionally, Kristel has been a soprano soloist in Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elias (Pärnu City Orchestra, conductor Markus Teutchbein, 2015), Leonard Bernstein’s Mass (Birgitta Festival 2014, conductor Māris Sirmais) and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (conductor Mihhail Gerts, 2013) and appeared in chamber music programs in Estonia and Moscow. She has collaborated with pianists Mihkel Poll, Martti Raide, Ralf Taal, Ivo Sillamaa, Tarmo Eespere, Riina Pikani and Jaanika Rand-Sirp.

Kristel Pärtna has been the grantee of Mati Palm Foundation (2010), she has been awarded the Marje and Kuldar Sink Prize for Young Singer (2012), the Theatre Award of Harju County (2017) and the SEB Pank Audience Award (2020).

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