Pannon Philharmonic

Polina Pasztircsák, soprano started her international opera and concert career after winning the famous Geneva International Music Competition in 2009. Since that time she has been guesting in opera houses and concert halls around Europe.

She was born in Budapest into a family of applied artists. Her name (pronounced: Pastirchak) originated from her Hungarian-Russian parents and Slovakian ancestors.

She made her operatic debut in 2007 as the protagonist of Lorenzo Ferrero’s contemporary opera, Le piccole storie. In the next season she made her successful debut with the role of Micaela - conducted by Juraj Valcuha - at the same theater as her master, Mirella Freni did in Modena. Since that time she sang Partenope in Handel Festival in Karlsruhe under the musical direction of Michael Hofstetter as well as Woglinde at Wagner’s Ring Cycle production at the Grand Theatre du Geneve, staged by Dieter Dorn and conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. She is regularly guesting at the Hungarian State Opera as Mimi, Traviata, Desdemona and Micaela. She is scheduled to sing Woglinde, Norne and Gerhilde at the Wagner Festival in Budapest under the baton of Ádám Fischer.

As a concert soloist she sang in the 14th Symphony of Shostakovich at the Radio della Svizzera Italiana conducted by Francesco Angelico, in Fauré’s Requiem at the Grand Theatre du Geneve, in Beethovens Missa Solemnis in the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. She also performed Les Nuits d’Eté of Berlioz with the Sinfonia Varsovia, Mozart concert arias with the Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Klärchen in Beethoven’s Egmont with the St. Petersburg Philharmonie and Nikolai Alexeev. At the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad she performed Mozart arias with Sabine Meyer and the Kammerorchester Basel conducted by Andreas Spering. This concert was recorded by Sony. The CD releasing tourney is going to take place in Germany in spring, 2014. Besides she is guesting with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

She gives song recitals like at the Radio France, the Marburger and Zürcher Konzertverein accompanied by Jan Philip Schulze, with whom she works since 2010. In addition she sang song recitals at the Davos Festival in Switzerland with Boris Kusnezow and the Zemlinsky Quartet. She also sang song recitals for the Bartók Radio and the Jewish Summer Festival in Hungary accompanied by Nóra Füzi. She has guested regularly with the Bellerive Festival, organised by Gábor Takács-Nagy in Switzerland, with the pianists Balázs Fülei and Christian Hadland. 

She began taking voice lessons at age 19 with Júlia Bikfalvy in Budapest. She continued her musical studies in Italy for five years as a pupil of Mirella Freni at the “Centro Universale del Bel Canto” obtaining the Hungarian-Italian international scholarship. She graduated with Honours in 2010 from the Conservatory of “G. Frescobaldi” in Ferrara. Parallel to her musical studies, she graduated in cultural management from the West-Hungarian University. She has worked on her voice and repertoire with Carol Richardson-Smith, Yevgeny Nesterenko, Adrienne Csengery, Bernd Weikl, Mathias Goerne and Christoph Eschenbach. In 2014 she is obtaining the scholarship of the Hungarian Richard Wagner Society.

In addition to the Geneva International Music Competition where she won the first prize, the public prize and three special prizes, her singing was also recognized at the ARD Music Competition in Munich with a special prize in 2012 and in 2004 with first and special prizes at the National “Simándy József” Singing Competition in Hungary.

Her first portrait album was released in 2010 by the Ysaye Records with songs of Richard Strauss, Shostakovich, Bartok and Kodaly.
Her new recording has been released in 2014 by Sony, where she sings Mozart concert arias on Sabine Meyers solo album.