About me

Australian born soprano Sharon Kempton, completed a Bachelor of Music Performance and Music Therapy with honours and Master of Music Performance at the University of Melbourne, under the tuition of Kevin Casey, Bettine MacCaughan OAM and the distinguished Merlyn Quaife OAM. Sharon has been the recipient of many prestigious prizes including the German Operatic Award (2001), embarking on her European career, as a member of the Cologne Opera Studio, Germany, followed by an eleven year engagement as soloist at the Hessen State Theater in Wiesbaden.

Sharon has performed with Aalto Musiktheater Essen, Köln Oper, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatstheater Kassel, Theater Ulm, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Osnabrück and Saarländisches Staatstheater, in Saarbrücken.

As an ensemble member of Staatstheater Wiesbaden from 2003 until 2014, Sharon performed and debuted forty operatic roles. A singer of immense versatility, she has received critical acclaim for her warm, richness of vocal tone and her compelling stage presence. Her extensive repertoire encompasses the genres of early Baroque Opera, performing roles such as Giunone (LaCallisto), Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), Elmira (Croesus), Armide (Armide) and Cleopatra (Julius Caesar) – for which she was nominated ’Singer of the Year’ in 2007 by Opernwelt, Germany; through to Classical, Romantic and works of the modern Masters.

In Wiesbaden, Sharon has had resounding success with many of the most beautiful Mozart roles composed for Soprano, including Pamina (Die Zauberföte), Ilia (Idomeneo), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and more recently The First Lady (Die Zaubeflöte).

Her impressive list of operatic repertoire beyond early Baroque and the operatic works of Mozart, include Peri in Schumann’s Paradies und die Peri, Marzelline (Fidelio), Micaëla (Carmen), Musetta (La Boheme), Antonia (The Tales of Hoffmann), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Norina (Don Pasquale), Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Marie (The Bartered Bride), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Gertrude (Hänsel und Gretel), Jungfer Marianna Leitmetzerin (Der Rosenkavalier) Gerhilde (Die Walküre) and Wellgunde in Das Rheingold and Göttterdämmerung. And notably Elisabeth in Tannhäuser by Wagner. Further roles include Axinja (Lady Macbeth von Mzensk), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Ninetta (The Love of Three Oranges), and Fourth Maid in Elektra. In Operetta, Sharon has also performed the roles Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Julia De Weert in Der Vetter aus Dingsda, Christel in Der Vogelhändler and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus.

Sharon was acclaimed for her performance as Elizabeth Zimmer in the 2014 Wiesbaden International May Festival premiere of Elegie für junge Liebende by Hans Werner Henze, directed by Dietrich Hilsdorf. Sharon has performed the extremely demanding role of Gräfin de La Roche in the ‘Meisterwerk’ Die Soldaten by Bernd Alois Zimmermann for Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Staatstheater Nürnberg and Oper Köln.

As an oratorio artist Sharon’s repertoire ranges from the early works of Händel, Bach, Haydn and Mozart to the more recent works of Holst, Poulenc and Tippet. She has performed oratorio works throughout Germany including Missa Solemnis (Liszt) with the Chor und Orchester Collegium Noricum, Nuernberg, Manfred (Schumann) with the Frankfurter Museums Orchester, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Esther (Händel) with Kantorei der Bergkirche and Karlsruher Barockorchester conducted by Christian Pfeifer and Paulus (Mendelssohn) with the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden. Most recently she performed the Bach’s Magnificat in D major conducted by Hans Kielblock.