German soprano Sofia Livotov is a versatile artist who moves with ease between opera, art song and concert repertoire. Her piercing lyric voice combines warmth, agility and emotional depth. Raised in Hannover and performing internationally, she is a bursary recipient of the International Opera Awards Foundation and prize-winner of the London Classical Music Competition.
Recent engagements include the soprano solo in Verdi's Requiem with the Halifax Choral Society in England and a concert tour in Indonesia. In April 2026 she was invited to take part in the Exzellenzlabor Oper - The Next Step in Germany, an intensive course led by Hedwig Fassbender, Björn Huestege and René Massis. In June 2026 she makes her debut at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Frank Zappa's 200 Motels.

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Sofia’s operatic repertoire includes roles such as Musetta in La Bohème, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Ilia in Idomeneo, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Micaela in Carmen, Gilda in Rigoletto and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, alongside Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, Yvette in La Rondine and the Owl in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. She made her London debut at the Tête-à-Tête Festival in the role of Mission Controller in Edward Lambert’s Apollo’s Mission, and has appeared at the Lucerne Theatre and the Theater Casino Zug in contemporary productions. From 2022 to 2026, Sofia was a member of the Opera North chorus in Leeds, where she also took on solo responsibilities in productions including Parsifal, Simon Boccanegra, La Rondine, Masque of Might, Peter Grimes, Tosca, The Cunning Little Vixen and Les Pêcheurs de Perles.

Alongside her operatic engagements, Sofia has developed a wide-ranging concert profile. She has performed solo in Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and St Paul, Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Missa Brevis, Ravel’s Shéhérazade (conducted by Ed Spanjaard) and Goebbels’ Country of Last Things (conducted by Jurjen Hempel). She has worked with ensembles including the English Symphony Orchestra under Kenneth Woods, the Orchester des Wandels, Festival Strings Lucerne and the Sinfonietta Zürich. Concert engagements have taken her to the Tonhalle Zürich, the Southbank Centre London, the Oxford Song Festival, TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, the Ulverston International Music Festival and the Leeds International Concert Series. As a member of the Opera North chorus, she participated in the recording of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra with the Hallé Orchestra and Opera Rara under Sir Mark Elder. With the Zurich Sing-Akademie, she performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under David Zinman with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
 

A passionate advocate for the art song genre, Sofia performs regularly in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Indonesia with chamber music partners including Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim, Haiou Zhang, Frans van Ruth, Prajna Indrawati and Edith Widayani. She has appeared at Beethoven bei Uns, the Musikzimmer Berlin, the Maria Anna Mozart Society in Salzburg, the International Festival Buxtehude and the University of Leeds International Concert Series. Together with Dutch pianist Frans van Ruth, she performed Schlegel’s song cycle Op. 28 in Leiden and Amsterdam, which was subsequently recorded by Dutch Radio. She gave the Swiss premiere of Pozdejev’s Cantata Sulamith at the Grossmünster Zürich, and performed Beethoven’s Welsh Songs with the Hanseatic Piano Trio at the Wismar Town Hall Concert Series. In 2021, she was selected for the prestigious Oxford Song Residential Mastercourse and received support from the Help Musicians Transmission Fund. Her recording Sounds of Indonesia, featuring Indonesian art songs alongside tenor Satriya Krisna and pianist Prajna Indrawati, was broadcast on SWR2, Radio Klassik Stephansdom and CKIA FM Canada.
 

Artistic Projects

Sofia has spent many years developing artistic projects that combine educational outreach, repertoire diversity and intercultural exchange. Together with pianist Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim, she founded the song duo Primevère, dedicated to the Romantic Lied repertoire and the promotion of works by contemporary composers.

A particularly significant artistic connection is her longstanding engagement with Indonesia. With tenor Satriya Krisna and pianist Prajna Indrawati, she founded the ensemble Tritala, a unique intercultural project that brings together Western classical works and traditional and contemporary Indonesian art songs. As a performing trio, they present varied programmes, lead workshops and support sustainable music education for emerging singers in Indonesia and Europe at universities and music institutions. In 2019, 2023 and again in 2025, Sofia toured with concerts and masterclasses in Jakarta, Bandung, Bali, Salatiga and Surabaya.

Beyond her operatic engagements, Sofia has long been committed to environmental and social causes. During the pandemic, she initiated a digital festival addressing the climate crisis, involving artists from four continents. She has since been regularly invited as a soloist by the Orchester des Wandels for its climate concerts. As a member of the non-profit organisation Harmonic Progression, she champions sustainability in the classical music world and supports under-resourced musicians through instrument string donations via the Strings4All project.
 

Training

Sofia first studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover under Margolina-Hait. She went on to study singing at the Hochschule Luzern – Musik with Liliane Zürcher, where she was a member of the opera studio Stagelab and completed a Master’s in Vocal Pedagogy. She subsequently earned a Master of Music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under Valérie Guillorit. Her training was enriched by masterclasses with Margreet Honig, Malcolm Martineau, Ann Murray, Regina Werner-Dietrich, Kelsey Kelly and Roger Vignoles. She is currently mentored by the renowned soprano Nelly Miricioiu. Sofia holds bursaries from the International Opera Awards Foundation and several Swiss, German and British foundations, including the EHW-Stiftung, Joseph-Wiederkehr-Stiftung, Theodor-Rogler-Stiftung, Bob Boas Charitable Trust and Help Musicians UK.
 

Teaching

Sofia is a trained vocal and piano teacher and works internationally with advanced singers and piano students, combining her artistic experience with methodical sensitivity. She gives masterclasses at universities in Indonesia and offers individual coaching in song interpretation and audition preparation. Drawing on her bilingual background, she also provides language coaching for singers in German and Russian.
 

Personal Background

Sofia was born in St Petersburg and moved at an early age with her family to Hannover. Music was a natural part of her life from the very beginning. She began piano lessons at the age of four, dancing ballet and singing in a children’s choir at the same time, where, as her grandmother recalled, she always sang louder than everyone else. Her love of music was further nurtured by regular visits to the opera and concert hall. At thirteen, she secretly prepared for the audition of the Mädchenchor Hannover and was accepted. She sang there for six years, gaining her first experience as a choral soloist. Alongside this, she studied piano with Alexander Burnstein, solfège and music theory with Valery Brainin, and played piano and celesta in the Lower Saxony Youth Orchestra. Her talent as a singer was recognised early, but never pushed. The path to becoming a soloist was never mapped out in advance; it was the result of her own passion and dedication. When she applied to music college, she was initially accepted for piano, not singing. From early on she accompanied singers at the piano, studied operatic roles and song repertoire, and gradually shaped her own artistic identity.