Biography

The Dutch mezzo-soprano Marieke Koster studied singing and opera at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Lucia Meeuwsen. During this time she obtained a scholarship to study with the Scottish soprano Patricia McMahon. She worked with Carolyn Watkinson, Rudolf Jansen, Kevin Smith and Aafje Heynis. She won first prizes at the A. F. Househeer Competition for song and opera, and at the Flemish Music Festival. In 2001 she was a prizewinner at the Erna Spoorenberg Vocal Competition.

In the field of Baroque music, her first operatic roles were Sémiramis ( Titlerole by André Cardinal Destouches, with the Orchestre des Arts), Ottone ( Monteverdi, L'incoronazione di Poppea, staged by Phillip Curtis), and Helena ( Purcell, The Fairy Queen, staged by David Prins). She has also given recitals featuring works by Luzzaschi, Pasqualini, Purcell and Kapsberger.
Marieke Koster has also sung parts in Menotti's The Medium- Mrs Nolan( Domestica, staged by David Prins), Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride - Iphigenie, Puccini's Suor Angelica- Lay Sister( with Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), Viktor Ullman's Der Kaiser von Atlantis- Der Trommler( staged by Marcel Sijm), Dvorák's Rusalka- Water Nymph, ( staged by W. Kerstens) and Janácek's Diary of One who vanished( staged by Jetske Mijnssen).

Marieke Koster has given several Dutch premieres, and is committed to twentieth-century music: Jan Boerman - De Aarde, Schönberg - Das Buch der hängenden Gärten( with Huub Kerstens), Holliger - Die Jahreszeiten, Kyburz - The Voynich Cipher Manuscript( Musikmonat Basel), Ince - Love under Siege, Andriessen- Mattheus Passie, the opening concert of the 1998 Holland Festival, and Schönberg's Second and Milhaud's Third String Quartets( with Quatuor Manfred)

Because of her experience of theatre and movement she is often engaged to perform modern music theatre, such as Kurt Weill's Davy Crockett, Tarenskeen's Orestes ( Theatre Group Amsterdam), Jacques Demiere's solo opera Je deviendrai Médée( staged by Adelheid Roosen), and Rafael Reina's Wollfli ( staged by Petra Weimer, with the Interval Chamber conducted by Gose Vincente)