Director of the Dutch National Opera
Sophie de Lint has been Director of Dutch National Opera since September 2018. Previously, she was Artistic Director of the Zurich Opera under the general management of Andreas Homoki. During her tenure in Zurich, the house was awarded the prize for ‘Opera Company of the Year’ at the 2014 International Opera Awards.
Sophie de Lint was born in Rotterdam and grew up in Geneva. She pursued violin studies at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève and completed a degree in Business Administration at Webster University in Geneva. She also attended the Executive Master in Arts Administration program at the University of Zürich.
Her wide-ranging career includes numerous artistic and administrative responsibilities for various opera houses and artistic agencies. From 1994 to 2001, Sophie de Lint worked at the Grand Théâtre de Genève as personal assistant to the General Manager, Renée Auphan, and later on as artistic coordinator. Subsequently she gained extensive experience as an assistant stage director at the Bayreuther Festspiele, New National Theatre Tokyo and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, among others. From 2002 to 2006 she worked as artist manager at Laurent Delage Artists Management in Vienna, where she specialized in the discovery and development of young opera singers, conductors and directors. From 2006 to 2009 she continued these activities for Artists Management Zürich before taking on her role as artistic director at the Zurich Opera.
Sophie de Lint is a frequent jury member of international singing competitions including the Gesangswettbewerb Neue Stimmen, the Queen Sonja International Music Competition, the Glyndebourne Opera Cup and the Concours Régine Crespin. She is also a jury member for the Ring Award, the leading competition for opera stage direction and design, the Fedora-Generali Prize for Opera and the International Conducting Competition in Rotterdam. She also lectures at Zurich University. Furthermore, she is a member of the Board of Opera Europa, the organization for professional opera companies and opera festivals throughout Europe.