Meet Golda Schultz
South African. Soprano. Connecting people through music, one song at a time.
In the limelight of the world’s opera houses, one voice shines with particular brightness – that of the soprano Golda Schultz.
Where she began
Golda was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1983. Her mother is a retired nurse, and her father is a retired university professor of Mathematics. Golda studied journalism at Rhodes University before switching to singing at the University of Cape Town, and then at the Juilliard School in New York.
In 2011, Golda won a place at the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, after which her career developed rapidly. From her base in Germany, she has conquered the world’s opera houses and concert halls, from the Vienna State Opera to the Salzburg Festival; and from the Royal Opera House in London to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, to name but four.
Where she’s been
Following her acclaimed Donna Anna at the 2025 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence under Sir Simon Rattle, Golda Schultz’s 2025/26 season featured her role debut as Rosalinde in a new production of Die Fledermaus at Opernhaus Zürich under Anna Bernreitner. In concert, Schultz toured Europe with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Robin Ticciati, culminating in a return to the BBC Proms. She also made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and returned to the New York Philharmonic for performances of Knoxville: Summer of 1915 conducted by Kwamé Ryan. Together with pianist Jonathan Ware, she launched Dark Matter(s), a newly curated recital programme featuring works by George Crumb, Clara Schumann, Florence Price, Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss, presented in Amsterdam, Berlin, Stuttgart, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Orleans. She concludes the season with two engagements in Munich: Agathe in Der Freischütz at the Munich Opera Festival under Daniele Rustioni and Liù in Turandot at the Bayerische Staatsoper under Andrea Battistoni.
Where she’s going
Golda Schultz opens her 2026/27 season with a welcome return to the Cleveland Orchestra, performing Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder under Franz Welser-Möst. She will then join the orchestra on a European tour with performances in Hamburg, Dortmund, Luxembourg, Paris and Brussels. The major operatic highlight of the season is her role debut as Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Wiener Staatsoper in a new production by Barrie Kosky. Her concert engagements also include debuts with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9) as well as with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Mahler’s Symphony No. 2). She will return to the Cleveland Orchestra for Beethoven’s Missa solemnis in Cleveland and at Carnegie Hall, and the Berliner Philharmoniker and Wiener Philharmoniker (her concert debut) in the same work, including performances at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Together with her longtime recital partner, pianist Jonathan Ware, she continues to present their acclaimed self-curated programme Dark Matter(s), with performances in Vienna and Bonn. The season concludes with a highly anticipated return to the Glyndebourne Festival, where she opens the festival in a new production of Mozart’s Idomeneo unter the baton of Festival’s music director Robin Ticciati.
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