Mezzo-soprano Dagmar Šašková, who has been living in France for many years, has specialized in Baroque music for over twenty years. After studying solo singing at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň and at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, she completed her studies in Baroque singing at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

As a soloist, she collaborates with ensembles such as Musica Florea, Akadêmia, Collegium 1704, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, Czech Ensemble Baroque, El Sol, Il Festino, Le Poème Harmonique, Harmonia Sacra, La Fenice, La Reverencia, Vedado Consort, Simphonie du Marais, and Les Traversées Baroques. She has recorded more than 20 CDs of Italian, French, Spanish, and German Baroque music. In the current season, she took part in the recording of the French version of Médée by Luigi Cherubini.

In 2010, she made her debut in the role of Corisande in Lully’s opera Amadis (Avignon, Opéra de Massy; conductor Olivier Schneebeli). Since 2011, she has portrayed the role of Apollo in Handel’s Terpsichore (Mnichovo Hradiště, the Baroque Theatre in Český Krumlov, Bernburg; conductor Marek Štryncl). She has appeared on 15 French stages as Melanto in Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses (conductor Jérôme Correas). In 2016, she toured with the Centre de Musique Baroque, performing oratorios by M. A. Charpentier (Avignon, Massy, South Korea; conductor Olivier Schneebeli). She sang Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Lyon; conductor Jean Tubéry). With the ensemble Akadêmia, she appeared on stage as Musica and La Messaggera in Monteverdi’s Orfeo (New Delhi, Metz, Reims, Paris; conductor Françoise Lasserre). With Simphonie du Marais, she portrayed Doris, Zaïda, and Olympia in André Campra’s L’Europe galante (Vienna Konzerthaus; conductor Hugo Reyne). In February 2019, she made her debut at the Paris Philharmonie in the role of Aurora in the opera Il mondo alla roversa by Baldassare Galuppi, under the direction of Françoise Lasserre. In 2021, she appeared as Lucia in the world premiere of Antonín Rejcha’s comic opera Gusman (conductor Jakub Kydlíček). With Les Traversées Baroques (conductor Étienne Meyer), she portrayed Reason in a staged version of the oratorio The Triumph of Death by Bonaventura Aliotti and the role of Faith in the oratorio La Morte vinta sul Calvario by Marc’Antonio Ziani. With the Lyon-based ensemble Concert de l’Hostel Dieu (conductor Franck-Emmanuel Comte), she took part in the world premiere of the oratorio Il Paradiso perduto by the Italian composer Luigi da Mancia. At the Znojmo Music Festival, she appeared with Czech Ensemble Baroque as Anna in Haydn’s oratorio The Return of Tobias, as Venus in Antonio Caldara’s opera The Harmony of the Planets, and in the title role of Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans (conductor Roman Válek).

Since 2021, Dagmar Šašková has created several recital programs in the Czech Republic. With Jaroslav Tůma, she presented The Death of a Queen, featuring works by Antonín Rejcha and Josef Kohout; with Monika Knoblochová, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and a concert devoted to Erik Satie; and with Josef Žák and Czech Ensemble Baroque, the full-evening concert Vivaldi triumphans.

In Paris, she was invited in January 2014 to participate in the project Cultures centrales, sharing her experience with Czech art song with French students. In the same year, she created a series of four concerts devoted exclusively to Czech music for the Czech Centre in Paris.

Dagmar Šašková is also active as a teacher. She has taught Baroque singing in New Delhi, Santiago de Chile, Seoul (South Korea), Lannion, Metz, Reims (France), Kielce (Poland), at the Summer School of Baroque Music in Holešov, at the Academy of Early Music, and at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno.

Further information about Dagmar Šašková can be found at:

https://www.dagmarsaskova.com

Level Of Skills Required

Advanced & professionals

Maximum number of students

8

Teaching Languages

Czech, English, French