Croatian mezzo-soprano Nina Tarandek opened the 2026/27 season with a concert at the 56th Varaždin Baroque
Evenings, alongside the Camerata Garestin Ensemble. In December 2026, she will appear at the CroVox Festival
at the Ehrbar Saal in Vienna.
In March 2027, she returns to Oper Frankfurt as Lucilla in a new production of Respighi’s La fiamma. This will be
followed by concerts as part of the “Melancolia” series in Freiburg, featuring Rachmaninoff’s romances and
Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok, Op. 127, performed with the Holst-Sinfonietta. In
May 2027, she will appear as Nicklausse/La Muse in a new production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the
Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

As a long-standing ensemble member of Oper Frankfurt, Nina Tarandek performed a wide-ranging repertoire and
enjoyed great success in roles such as Angelina (La Cenerentola), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Dorabella (Così fan tutte),
Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Sesto (Giulio Cesare in Egitto), Waltraute (Die Walküre) and Kate (Owen Wingrave).
Her recent engagements include Dorabella (Così fan tutte) at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb and an
appearance in a new production of Wagner’s Parsifal at Oper Frankfurt in 2025.
Other guest engagements have taken her to Oper im Steinbruch in St. Margarethen as Mercédès (Carmen) and the
Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte), to the Tiroler Festspiele Erl as Beppe (L’amico Fritz) and Ortlinde (Die Walküre), and
to Theater Freiburg as Sesto (Giulio Cesare). She has also appeared at the Semperoper Dresden (Dido and Aeneas),
Volksoper Wien (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Theater an der Wien (Der Prinz von Homburg) and Vilnius City
Opera as Dorabella (Così fan tutte). She received particular recognition for her portrayal of La Malaspina in the
Italian premiere of Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici at the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte in Montepulciano (CD released
by Stradivarius, DVD by EuroArts).

Nina Tarandek is also internationally active as a concert soloist. Her recent performances include Rossini’s Stabat
Mater with the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with the Holst-Sinfonietta in
Freiburg. Further concert appearances include the MITO Settembre Musica Festival in Turin, where she performed
songs by Franco Alfano, and the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin, where she interpreted works by Jean Barraqué in a
portrait concert broadcast by Deutschlandfunk Kultur. She has appeared regularly at the Varaždin Baroque
Evenings with various ensembles, including the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Garestin.
Her concert repertoire also includes Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the
Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Vienna Virtuosi at the Vienna Musikverein, and
Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, in a performance broadcast by ORF. She also appeared in
the concert “Sultans of Opera” with the Pera Ensemble at the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin.

Nina Tarandek has performed with orchestras including the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Frankfurt Opera and
Museum Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Vienna
Philharmonic, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. She has collaborated
with distinguished conductors such as Sebastian Weigle, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Leopold Hager, Franz Welser-Möst,
Antonello Manacorda, Pablo Heras-Casado, Erik Nielsen, Francesco Lanzillotta, Jader Bignamini, Alexander Soddy,
Joana Mallwitz and Thomas Guggeis.

As a recitalist, she has appeared at the Kasseler Musiktage, Koblenzer Kammerkonzerte, Oper Frankfurt, the
Čakovec Chamber Music Festival and in Abu Dhabi. At the hr-Sendesaal in Frankfurt, she performed Wagner’s
Wesendonck-Lieder with the Frankfurt String Sextet. Her CD recording of songs by Franco Alfano was nominated for
the German Record Critics’ Award (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik).
Nina Tarandek studied opera singing at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK) with Uta Schwabe
and Julia Conwell, as well as Lied and oratorio interpretation with Carolyn Hague and Birgid Steinberger.

In 2018, she was nominated for “Singer of the Year” by the opera magazine Opernwelt. In 2006, she won first prize
at the Fidelio Competition in Vienna