Sawako Kayaki

Japanese soprano Sawako Kayaki was born in 1999. Her musical education started with the violin at the age of three. At sixteen, she started vocal studies and this quickly became her principal instrument. After completing a year at Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan, where she studied under Emiko Suga, Sawako moved to Europe to continue her training. Sawako now studies with Dietrich Henschel and is enrolled at the International Opera Academy (IOA). In one of the IOA productions, she sang a leading role (Retrochick) in the contemporary opera Private View written by the Belgian composer Annelies Van Parys. Her operatic repertoire includes the roles of Lakmé in Lakmé (Delibes), Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss), Morgana in Alcina (Händel), Ännchen in Der Freischütz (Weber), Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Mozart) etc. Recently she won 1st prize at the Internationaler Gesangswettbewerb Basel 2021.