Biography
The Croatian contralto / mezzosoprano has a truly unique dramatic voice of enormous beauty, warmth, depth and passion — the kind of voice that not only soothes but makes you shiver. Her concerts are always a sensational experience for the audience.
Recognition
Her album Magic Echo (Croatia Records, 2017) was nominated for the most prestigious Croatian award, Porin, in three categories: best classical music album, best production, and best performance for the song Liebeslied by Dora Pejačević.
The Croatian press named Sandra one of “the best and most popular Croatian opera singers living abroad” in 2016.
She was nominated for “Zagreb Citizen of the Year 2005” for her album Zagreb and Viennese Songs (BestMusic).
Training
After completing her music education in Zagreb, Croatia (Piano and Vocal), she studied classical singing and opera at the Prayner Conservatorium in Vienna, Austria, where she also did her post-graduate artistic training and took master classes with Altenbergtrio Vienna (chamber music), KS Walter Berry (Lied und Oratorium) and Irina Gavrilovici, among other lecturers and music experts — all with the support of a scholarship from the Croatian Ministry of Culture (2001).
She further built her dramatic-contralto opera repertoire with world-renowned Heldentenor Peter Svensson during 2014/2015, supported by a scholarship from Team 4 Künstlerservice Austria. In October 2016, Sandra attended a master class with Regina Schörg in Vienna.
From 2017 onward, she has worked on vocal technique with Univ. Prof. Sylvia Greenberg in Vienna.
In addition to her music education, Sandra attended acting master classes with the Austrian actor and well-known clown Martin Beck. Further lessons in acting and stage speech with Dunja Tot and Gabrielle Buch (Burgtheater Vienna). In Summer 2019, she received a scholarship for a musical master class with René Rumpolt and a vocal-percussion / beatbox class with Fernando Paiva de Silva in Gutenstein, Austria (Meisterklassen Gutenstein).
In 2001 she became a member of both the Croatian Society of Music Artists and the Croatian Association of Independent Artists (with social and pension insurance provided by the State of Croatia). The same year she also received a Bachelor of Laws from the Faculty of Law, Zagreb, Croatia.
On stage
As a theatrical and inspiring artist, she has performed in more than 500 solo concerts and performances across a range of genres — at festivals, readings, and various functions and presentations — mostly in Austria and Croatia, as well as in Japan in both 2008 and 2011 (as part of concert tours).
She also successfully teaches piano to small children (ages 3–5) and classical singing — privately and at the Musisches Zentrum Wien / Music Centre Vienna for youth, Zeltgasse 7, 1080 Vienna.
Selected milestones
2008 — Sandra’s first CD, Songs from Vienna and Zagreb, together with tenor Mathias Reinthaller. The CD was a great success and Sandra was consequently nominated for “Citizen of Zagreb of the Year”.
2010 — her jazz debut with the CD My Favorite Things, with Croatian jazz musicians. The same year Sandra premiered Manuela Kerer’s composition Wall-street-Wall (2010) for mezzosoprano, tap shoes, violoncello and piano — written for her.
2011 — she began her collaboration with the most popular jazz pianist in Croatia, Matija Dedić (Classic & Jazz Melange).
November 2014 onward — regular guest at the Wagner gala concerts Peter Svensson and Friends in Vienna.
December 2015 — Viennese premiere of Franz von Suppè’s composition for alto and orchestra Salve Regina at the Kursalon Hübner in Vienna.
December 2016 — popular Christmas songs at the Advent Concert in Vienna with young conductor Giuseppe Terza and his orchestra, in the Am Hof church in the very centre of the city.
2017 — with her vocal-lyric program Women in the Music of the Romantic Era (Luisa Erdödy LIOS, R. Wagner / Mathilde Wesendonck, and Dora Pejačević), she became part of the official program of the Croatian Embassy in Vienna and the Austrian Government for the Culture Year Austria–Croatia.
March 2018 — released the CD Magic Echo (vocal lyric by Luisa Erdödy Lios, Richard Wagner, and Dora Pejačević), Croatia Records.
November 2019 — Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin, music-theatre evening Lujzina košarica, dedicated to Countess Louisa Erdödy, who composed under the pseudonym Lios.
Natural healing
[To translate from German — Naturheilung paragraph]