Swiss soprano Martina Janková was born in the Czech Republic and, after studying at the Basel Music Academy and the International Opera Studio in Zurich, was a member of the Zurich Opera House ensemble for fourteen years. There she sang under renowned conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Franz Welser-Möst, William Christie, Mark Minkowski, Christopher Hogwood, Adam Fischer and Ingo Metzmacher in roles such as Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Celia (Lucio Silla), and Aminta (Il re pastore), Angelica (Orlando), Füchsin Schlaukop (The Cunning Little Vixen), Nanetta (Falstaff), Marzelline (Fidelio), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) and Ighino (Palestrina).

Today she is one of the most sought-after Mozart interpreters of her generation. Martina Janková made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2000 in Cherubini's Medée. Since then, she has appeared in ten productions in Salzburg, including as Papagena and Cherubino. In 2012, Martina Janková could be heard as Aminta in Mozart's Il re pastore and in the following years was acclaimed by audiences and press alike as Despina, Susanna, and again as Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte in 2016.

Additional engagements have taken her to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris (Marzelline/Leonore), the Prague National Theater (Sofia in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino) and Prague State Opera (Ilia/Idomeneo), and the Grand Thèâtre de Genève (Füchsin Schlaukopf, Fortuna und Drusilla/L’incoronazione di Poppea), as well as to the Theater an der Wien, where she was heard as Celia in Mozart's Lucio Silla as part of the Wiener Festwochen. Martina Janková enjoyed further resounding success in the Mozart/Da Ponte cycle performed by the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst, and was acclaimed by audiences and the press in May 2014 in a new production of The Cunning Little Vixen with the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst.

Alongside her work on the opera stage, Martina Janková is a much sought-after concert singer. She has performed with leading European orchestras such as the Berlin and Munich Philharmonics, the Frankfurt and Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, the Israel Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Concentus Musicus in Vienna, the Czech Philharmonic, the Orchestra La Scintilla of the Zurich Opera House, La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and the Cleveland Orchestra under such renowned conductors as Jiří Bělohlávek, Ivor Bolton, Bertrand de Billy, Riccardo Chailly, Iván Fischer, Adam Fischer, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe, Marek Janowski, Vaclav Lux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Andrea Marcon, Sir Neville Marriner, Ingo Metzmacher, Sir Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Franz Welser-Möst.

Martina Janková has given recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Prague Spring Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Festival Musiques en Été in Geneva, the Styriarte Festival in Graz as well as at the Salzburg Festival and the Zurich Opera House. Martina Janková has been teaching singing at the renowned Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) since autumn 2020.

Recent highlights include a tour with Rossini’s La Cenerentola/Clorinda with the Musiciens du Prince and Gianluca Capuano in Switzerland, Spain and Italy, Purcell’s King Arthur at the Theater an der Wien with Concentus Musicus and Stefan Gottfried, Schubert’s Mass in E-flat major in Cleveland with Franz Welser-Möst, and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang at La Scala in Milan with Cornelius Meister. Further key appearances include Rossini’s La Cenerentola/Clorinda with Cecilia Bartoli and the Orchestra La Scintilla under the baton of Gianluca Capuano at the Zurich Opera House, in Rejcha's Leonore in Brno, and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with The Clevleand Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst. With the Ensemble Florea and Marek Sryncl, she presented a baroque programme called “Luce eterno” (a baroque voyage to Rome).

In addition to her stage work, Martina Janková has also dedicated herself to teaching for several years and is regularly invited to give masterclasses and workshops at universities and music festivals in Europe and the USA.

Her CD releases include several solo recitals, most recently her solo-album with Songs by Bohuslav Martinů (acclaimed with a Diapason d’Ort) and the album Prague-Vienna: A journey in songs with songs by Tomášek, Koželuh, Mozart, Haydn and others. Further records of the label Supraphon  include the album Recollection featuring songs by Joseph Haydn, a solo CD with songs from Mussorgsky, Dvorák, Richard Strauss and Schoeck, as well as Moravian Folk Songs by Janácek and Bach Cantatas with Collegium 1704 under Václav Luks. Martina Janková can be seen on DVD as Tilly (Simplicius) by Johann Strauss, Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte), and Angelica (Orlando) by Handel, as well as Angelo in Handel’s Oratorio La Resurrezione. In summer 2016, the DVD of the Salzburg Festival production of Le nozze di Figaro was released, featuring the soprano’s stand-out performance in the role of Susanna.

2024 | 2025

www.martinajankova.com

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by artist management.