Skip to main content

Elise Caluwaerts

Elise Caluwaerts


Thanks to her versatility and captivating personality, soprano Elise Caluwaerts has grown into a renowned soloist both in Belgium and abroad. Her love for challenging repertoire – ranging from opera to multidisciplinary projects – led to various creations and remarkable collaborations with internationally renowned composers and ensembles. During the Sydney Festival 2016, she sang the highly acclaimed role of Lei in Pascal Dusapin’s chamber opera Passion :"Belgian soprano Elise Caluwaerts impressed with her supple sense of line and strength, displaying a soaring, pure-toned top register and richly coloured lower register." (The Australian).

Furthermore, Elise released an album with spectacular coloratura repertoire with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in December 2016. It lead to various major international opera productions, such as Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira) with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra directed by David Stern and Rossini’s Il Barbieri di Siviglia (Rosina) under the baton of Vegard Nilsen. Highlight of the 2017-2018 season was the female leading role (Chuan Yun) in the creation of Enjott Schneider's opera Marco Polo directed by Kasper Holten in Guanghzou Opera (China) in May 2018. Elise Caluwaerts is currently preparing for the role of Mimi in La Bohème for the Copenhagen Opera Festival in August 2019. In addition, a series of New Year's concerts are planned with the Danish Aalborg Symphony Orchestra during the 2019-2020 season. In Belgium, Elise will be performing songs by Berlioz, Strauss and Villa-Lobos in a new production with cello octet Ô-Celli.

The numerous multidisciplinary projects Elise Caluwaerts is working on prove that she seeks to explore boundaries. In 2017-2018 there was the successful literary-musical production Avondrood around Richard Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder, a collaboration with Behoud de Begeerte and acclaimed author Lize Spit. In July 2019, at the request of House of Flanders, Elise curated an artistic production in which art, fashion and technology came together to connect past and present. Therefore, she collaborated with VR producer Wim Forceville and fashion tech designer Jasna Rok at the world-famous Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco.





Flanders Arts Institute

Expertise centre for performing arts, music and visual arts.