Chelsea is a Swiss-Seychellois soprano who trained at the International Opera Studio in Zurich during the 2021 to 2023 seasons. During this time, she appeared on the stages of the Zurich Opera House and the Theater Winterthur in roles such as Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zaida in Il Turco in Italia, Atalanta in Serse, among others. In December 2023, she sang the title role in the world premiere of the opera Heidi feiert Weihnachten by Swiss composer Fabian Müller at Theater Biel-Solothurn.

In summer 2023, she made her debut in the leading role of Licori in Vivaldi’s La Fida Ninfa at the renowned Innsbruck Festival of Early Music. The production was recorded and released by CPO in January 2025. In the 2024/25 season, Chelsea will debut at the Handel Festival in Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, and also take on the role of Serpina in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona at Theater Biel-Solothurn.

On the concert stage this season, she debuted with the Tonkünstler Orchestra and performed Handel’s Messiah at the Musikverein in Vienna, the Stadttheater Wiener Neustadt, the Festspielhaus St. Pölten, and the Congress Innsbruck, under the baton of Ivor Bolton, Matthew Halls, and Andreas Ottensamer. She performs regularly at the Tonhalle Zurich. Highlights of this season there include a New Year’s concert with Heiko Mathias Förster and the Zurich Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s birthday concerts with the CHAARTS Chamber Artists, and a Strauss gala concert with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Chelsea has enjoyed major success in vocal competitions across Europe this season. She is a prizewinner of the prestigious 78th Concours de Genève in 2024, where she won first prize and nine special prizes, including a role at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and multiple concert engagements. At the 2025 SWR Young Opera Stars competition, she won First Prize in the women’s voice category and the Emmerich Smola Orchestra Prize awarded by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie.

In previous seasons, the Swiss soprano performed as Gerhilde in Die Walküre at the Prague State Opera, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Dresden’s Kulturpalast, and the Cologne Philharmonie under the baton of Kent Nagano. She also appeared in concert at prestigious venues such as the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the baroque orchestra La Cetra conducted by Andrea Marcon, the Stuttgart Liederhalle with Il Gusto Barocco under Jörg Halubek, and the Tonhalle Zurich with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Heiko Mathias Förster.

She has worked with conductors including Alvetina Ioffe, Chiara Cattani, Kent Nagano, Riccardo Minasi, Victorien Vanoosten, Vladimir Kiradjiev, Christoph König, Joseph Bastien, Kaspar Zehnder, Mladen Tarbuk, Franco Trinca, and Christoph-Mathias Mueller.

She is also the recipient of numerous other singing competition awards, including second prize at the Otto Edelmann Competition in September 2024, first prize at the International Haydn Competition in Rohrau, Austria in May 2024, second prize at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in February 2023, and recognition at the International Cesti Competition in Innsbruck in August 2022.

Chelsea Zurflüh will be the soloist in the concert on August 1, 2025.