While growing up in a family of classical musicians, soprano Channa Malkin initially enjoyed other creative outlets such as painting and writing. Music was always present, as she went from playing the flute to songwriting and singing in choir and bands. But when she discovered opera as a teenager, there was no way back: she auditioned for the role of Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Dutch National Opera, and made her debut at 16 years old. There, Channa found her true voice and embarked upon a path that has led her to become the artist and performer she is today.
Channa has demonstrated her unbridled creativity and entrepreneurship with the creation of her own multimedia opera pastiche Handel goes Tinder, together with violinist Anastasia Kozlova and writer/director Michael Diederich. Channa has performed this production 33 times for sold-out venues and festivals in the Netherlands. In 2022, Handel goes Tinder played at the International Handelfestpiele in Göttingen. She creates profound bonds with her audiences by presenting musical programmes combined with personal storytelling. Her song programme This is not a lullaby explores aspects of motherhood and her Jewish-Eastern European cultural heritage through song and poetry. The album was particularly well received by the press, with Opernglas writing “Following this wonderful young singer through the diverse emotional moods is an experience of a very special kind." And Volkskrant: “Listening to Channa Malkin's clear-flowing voice is a real pleasure, but her new album, dedicated to her little son, is much more than an aesthetic experience”.
Recent highlights include the one-woman opera Non muore mai at the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival 2021, where she was reinvited after various song recitals in 2020. Handel goes Tinder keeps playing for sold-out halls and open-air venues. She recently jumped in at one day’s notice for Holland Baroque and Alexander Weimann in Handel’s Dixit Dominus and the world premiere of Hayes’ The Fall of Jericho. Other past highlights were her performances of the Boy Solo in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of Mariss Jansons, and the world premieres of Yizkor and Black Flowers, a cantata and song cycle for soprano, orchestra and chorus by Josef Malkin, in New York City, Salt Lake City, Sofia (Bulgaria), and with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. She sang the soprano solos in Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passion and B Minor Mass with the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra and various orchestras within theNetherlands. Channa regularly works as a soloist with baroque ensemble La Sfera Armoniosa led by theorbist Mike Fentross, with whom she performed Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres, as well as programmes with Italian, Dutch and Spanish baroque music.
In addition to opera and concert, Channa enjoys telling stories and connecting intimately with audiences in song recitals. Her debut album Songs of Love and Exile, together with guitarist Izhar Elias, was hailed by the international press as “Glorious”. In the 2022/23 season, Channa Malkin and Izhar Elias will continue to perform their album programme at various festivals and concert halls as part of their Dutch tour, including Stadsgehoorzaal Leiden and Theater aan 't Vrijthof Maastricht, having already performed it at Dutch National Opera, among other venues. In January 2023, Channa made her recital debut at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where she presented a semi-staged programme around the various identities of womanhood, inspired by 17th-century Italian composer Barbara Strozzi and Russian 20th-century poet Anna Akhmatova.
Channa graduated with honours from the Utrecht Conservatoire, where she studied with Charlotte Margiono. Being awarded scholarships from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and the Van den Ende Foundation, she went on to study with Rosemary Joshua, with whom she discovered her love for early music. Today, she continues working with her vocal coach Manuela Ochakovski on new repertoire. Channa is also passionate about sharing her knowledge with the next generation of performers. In her role as Professional Integration Coach at The Hague Royal Conservatoire, Channa coaches Masters students on the entrepreneurship aspect of their Masters Project.
