German-American soprano Annika Rioux first studied with Prof. Elisabeth Gyöngyi Kovacs at the Nuremberg University of Music, where she completed her diploma before continuing her studies with Prof. Lioba Braun at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.

She received further artistic impulses from Prof. Edda Moser, Professor Hanno Blaschke, and Professor Peter Maus.

 

In addition to her singing master's degree, Annika completed another master's degree in International arts management, also at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, which she completed with a thesis on marketing concepts in the field of classical music.

​

She gained first experience as an opera singer in various university productions and performed in Britten's Albert Herring, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Haydn's Lo speciale, among others.

​

As a soloist, Annika has made guest appearances with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the New Westphalia Philharmonic, the Vogtland Philharmonic Greiz-Reichenbach, the Wernigerode Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra Saalfeld-Rudolstadt.

 

Her wide-ranging repertoire includes oratorio, opera and operetta as well as song.

As an interpreter of contemporary music, she has appeared in several world premieres; in 2016 she celebrated great success with Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre for coloratura soprano and chamber orchestra.

​

Numerous guest performances at home and abroad, including England, France, Austria, Finland and the Czech Republic, complete her profile.

She was a guest at the Finnish chamber music festival "Sibelius in Korpo", where she interpreted Sibelius-songs alongside pianist Folke Gräsbeck and performed as a soloist with the Finnish choir Dominante.

 

In October 2020 she appeared as a soloist in the live broadcast of the ARD television service.

 

Since the 2014 /15 season, Annika has been a regular guest at the Thuringian State Theater in Rudolstadt.

The versatile artist covers different genres and is a soloist in various concert series of the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra Saalfeld-Rudolstadt as well as in drama productions, including Faust I orThe glass of water, where she could be heard with contemporary compositions, but also with various baroque repertoire.

She has worked with directors such as Mario Holetzeck and Herbert Olschok, as well as with the Berlin TheaterFusion.

Most recently she performed chansons from the 20's and 30's in Schnucki, oh Schnucki, a homage to the piano cabaret artist Hermann Leopoldi.

 

In addition to her artistic work, her passion for many years has been teaching.

From 2019 to 2022 she worked as a choir voice coach and singing teacher at the evangelical town church in Bad Hersfeld; in the 2020/21 season she was hired to give vocal training to the acting ensemble of Rudolstadt Theater.

​

Annika was a member of the Bayerische Singakademie and received a scholarship from Yehudi Menuhin's Live Music Now.

​