Nozomi Kato

The Japanese mezzo-soprano Nozomi Kato is currently based in Valencia, and is rapidly making a name for herself both in Europe and in Japan. Most recently, she made her role debut as Carmen in Yokohama’s Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig.

Based in Europe since 2013, she made her debut in Italy in 2014 as Clarina in Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio at Teatro Regio di Parma. Further appearances in Italy include Suzuki in Madama Butterfly at Teatro Magnani in Fidenza (2015) and Teatro Municipale di Piacenza (2016), Enrichetta in I Puritani (2017), Siébel in Faust (2018), Bersi in Andrea Chenier (2019) in Modena. In 2016, she took part in Accademia del Belcanto of the Festival della Valle d’Itria, where she was selected to sing Ismene in Mayr’s Medea in Corinto with Fabio Luisi conducting. She was invited back to the festival the following year as Dorabella in Così fan tutte, also conducted by Luisi. She has also appeared at the opera houses in Bari and Trieste, as well as at several major music festivals in Italy.

In Spain, she participated in the Opera (e) Studio of Opera de Tenerife in 2013, and in 2014 made her house debut there as Smeton in Anna Bolena conducted by Sebastiano Rolli. At Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, she has appeared as Celia in Handel’s Silla (cond: Fabio Biondi), Hermia in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (cond: Roberto Abbado/dir: Paul Curran), and Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw. In the 2017/18 season, she appeared in three productions, as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Lisetta in Il mondo della Luna, and Annio in La clemenza di Tito, and was awarded “la Mejor cantante revelación” of the season by the AOA (asociacion de Amigos de la ópera y de las artes). In May 2018, she sang the role of Adalgisa in Norma at ABAO Theatre in Bilbao (cond: Pietro Rizzo /dir: Davide Livermore), and in 2020 she will appear in Oviedo as Suzuki.

In Tokyo, Nozomi’s performance as Maddalena in Rigoletto (Tokyo Nikikai production) in 2015 was enthusiastically received and highly praised by the conductor Andrea Battistoni. In 2016, she made her first appearance in NHK Television’s annual New Year Opera Concert, which is broadcast nationally. She is a member of Tokyo Nikikai.

On the concert stage, her repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.

She won First Prize (Milan Award) at the 43rd Concorso di Lirica Italiano in Tokyo and became a finalist in the opera section of the Renata Tebaldi International Voice Competition in 2015. Most recently she was a semi-finalist in the final rounds of Plácido Domingo’s Operalia in 2017, and was chosen to participate in the final rounds of the Belvedere Singing Competition in 2019.

Nozomi Kato studied singing at Tokyo University of the Arts, receiving her Bachelor’s degree in 2010 and Master’s degree in opera studies (with honours) in 2013. While a student, she received several awards and grants, and was selected to take part in the prestigious Yomiuri Newcomers’ Concert. In 2013, she went to study at the conservatory “A. Boito” in Parma with a scholarship from the Meiji Yasuda Cultural Foundation. In 2016, Nozomi became the first Japanese singer to join the Advanced Training Academy “Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo” in Valencia, where she successfully completed the two-year programme and was chosen to sing in the gala concert celebrating the academy’s 10th anniversary in March 2019.