Shira Patchornik is an Israeli soprano. She is the first place winner of two major baroque competitions: Concours Corneille 2021 (Rouen, France, in association with Le poème harmonique- Vincent Dumestre) and of Cesti Copetition 2021, where she also won the audience award and several engagement prizes. She works regularly with maestro Andrea Marcon and La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, with whom she recorded the role of Nicandro in the opera Arsilda by Vivaldi under the table Naïve Records, performs regularly at the Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig and Wiener Konzerthaus and has her name attached to several other CDs. In recent years she performed numerous main roles such as Susanna (Le Nozze Di Figaro) at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Komische Oper Berlin and The Israeli Opera. At the Israeli Opera she debuted the role of Adina (L'elisir d'amore) and Soeur Constance (Dialogues des Carmélites). Teatro Region Torino has invited her to sing the role of Anne Frank in Frid's Monoopera The Diary of Anne Frank in the reopening of the theatre on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and later came back as Contessa Bandiera in Salieri's opera La scuola de' gelosi. Shira has established a name for herself in the baroque world and among many engagements, sings at Händelfestspiele Karlsruhe the role of Laodice (Siroe) under Attilio Cremonesi, at Winter in Schewetzingen as Adina in R. Kaiser's opera Nebuchadnezzar with Dorothee Oberlinger and La Folie (Platée) in Prague's state theatre under the baton of Václav Luks. Shira was invited by the Bregenzer Festspiele and Sir David Pountney to debut the world premiere of the opera Hold Your Breath in 2024, composed by Éna Brennan.
During the seasons 2018-20, she was a member of the ensemble of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (Wiesbaden state theater) where she debuted the roles of Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Micaela (Carmen) and many others. Some of the roles and theaters Shira guested in are Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf as Morgana (Alcina), as Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) in Theater Dessau, as Valencienne (Die Lustige Witwe) in Theater Heidelberg, and in the Bregenzer Festspiele, as Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) under the baton of Valentin Uryupin.
Her high education in opera was divided between Tel-Aviv where she studied with Prof. Sharon Rostorf-Zamir, and Leipzig where she studied with Prof. Jeanette Favaro-Reuter. She was awarded several prizes in international competitions, such as Otto Edelmann Voice Competition in Vienna in 2018 (Jürgen E. Schmidt Prize), BMSOM Voice Competition in Israel in 2016 (2. Prize), and Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in Rheinsberg in 2017 (prize receiver) where she also got to sing the role of Frasquita (Carmen) in the festival that summer as part of her prize. At 19 she sang Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw in The Israeli Opera and later she appeared as a guest at the Kammeroper of Theater an der Wien as Contessa Bandiera in Salieri’s La scuola de’ gelosi. Other roles include Orasia in Telemann’s Orpheus and Euridice in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Furthermore she sang in theatres as Oper Leipzig and Theater Nordhausen.
Shira's studies and progress have been supported by numerous foundations such as the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Meitar Foundation, Ronen Foundation and an excellence scholarship for her studies in the music academy in Tel-Aviv, awarded by the school itself for her achievements. Amongst noted conductors and professors she worked with are names like Konrad Junghänel, Jochen Rieder, David Stern, Patrick Lange, Edith Wiens, Tobias Truniger and many others. Her concert repertoire includes among many- Mozart Requiem and C Major Mass, Poulenc Gloria, many of Bach’s works as the Christmas Oratorio, B minor Mass, Johannespassion and countless cantatas performed all around Germany including in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Christkirche Rendsburg, Schlosskirche Bayreuth and Marktkirche Wiesbaden.