The Estonian Soprano Katrin Targo started her musical education at the age of 5. She finished her piano studies at the Tallinn Music High School (majoring as a concert pianist and a piano teacher) with professors Ülle Sisa and Lembit Orgse in 1998. During the continuation of her studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre she decided to major in Opera Singing, graduating in 2007 with a Master of Arts (Magister Artium) degree.
After a few years of teaching singing Katrin continued her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she got her 2nd Master of Arts degree in 2012 in the field of Musical Dramatical Performance. Katrin studied with Claudia Visca, Paul Esterhazy, Reto Nickler und Christoph U. Meier. She acquired further artistic impulses in Master Classes and private Studios of Maria Acda, David Aronson, Grace Bumbry, Huw James, Walter Moore, Bojidar Nikolov, Kristin Okerlund, Rudolf Piernay, James Pearson, Anna Niedbala, and Jean-Ronald LaFond.
Katrin Targo is a Prizewinner of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship in Tallinn, Estonia 2007, the Mart Saar-Singing Competition in Suure-Jaani, Estonia 2008, the Johannes Brahms Singing Competition in Pörtschach, Austria 2012, the Imrich Godin International Singing Competition in Vrable, Slovakia 2014 and the Antonín Dvořák Competition in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic 2014. Besides main prizes she has often received special prizes for best interpretations. In 2016 she was the only female laureate, receiving the 3rd Prize of the 39th Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Competition in New York Carnegie Hall.
Katrin Targo gathered her first opera stage experience as a member of the Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir, Arnold Schönberg Choir and the Extra Chorus of the Vienna State Opera. She gave her Opera Debut as a Soloist singing Hänsel in Humperdinck’s „Hänsel & Gretel“ performed on the stage of the Estonian Puppet Theatre. Gala concerts in Estonia and Finland, engagements as Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) in the Estonian National Opera, and as Ilia and Belinda in productions of the Music University in Vienna followed. Ms Targo’s Opera Repertoire covers amongst others the roles of Pamina & Erste Dame (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte), Donna Anna (Mozart: Don Giovanni), Frau Fluth (Nicolai: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Giulietta (Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Juliet (Gounod: Romeo & Juliet), Belinda (Purcell: Dido & Aeneas), Cleopatra (Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto), Musetta (Puccini: La Bohème), Lauretta (Puccini: Gianni Schicchi), and Tatyana (Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin).
Katrin is a sought after Oratorio soloist and sings regularly in the Cathedral of Vienna St. Stephan’s, St. Franciscan and St. Augustin Churches of Vienna, and elsewhere in Europe. In May 2014 she gave her Debut in Bach-Cantata Cycle at the Vienna Concert House (Wiener Konzerthaus). In addition she also performs with the Vienna Opera Show and Vienna Residence and Hofburg Orchestras. Her repertoire comprises alongside Opera and Oratorium also Operetta and Wienerlied.
Among others Katrin Targo has worked with the notable conductors Luca Pianca, János Czifra, Martin Haselböck, Johannes Ebenbauer, Markus Landerer, Risto Joost, Fritz Haselwander, Konstantin Hiller, Nigel Perrin, Michael Lessky, and Andres Mustonen.
In October of 2016 Katrin Targo gave her Debut as Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) at the Pilsen Great Opera under the wonderful direction of Tomaš Pilař. In the near future she will be performing at different Music Festivals in Estonia and Italy, in the Opera House of Ostrava in Czech Republic. In 2017 she will be singing Esther in the children’s opera “Noah’s Arc” and the roles of Donna Anna (Mozart: Don Giovanni), and Konstanze (Mozart: Entführung aus dem Serail) in productions in Vienna. Concert trips will take her through France and Germany in 2017, and also to Brazil and USA in 2018.
Katrin will give her Debut at the Neue Oper Wien in the beginning of 2018 as the female main protagonist Dede in the chamber version of Bernstein’s opera “A Quiet Place”.
In 2015 Katrin Targo released a CD with Ekaterina Nokkert featuring art songs by Alban Berg, Smauel Barber, and Hugo Wolf (Marinegrau Records) and 2017 a CD with art songs by Mozart and Schubert was published with Maestro Walter Riemer on the hammerclavier.