Biography

Dagmar Šašková was born in Rakovník, Czech Republic, in 1978. She began her musical studies with Ludmila Kotnauerová at the Western Bohemian University in Pilsen (2003 graduate). In 2002, she was awarded Second Prize at the Leoš Janáček International Competition in Brno and the Bohuslav Martinů Special Award. She further pursued her singing studies at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (Marta Beňačková class, 2006). In June 2008, Dagmar Šašková brought her studies in baroque vocal technique to a brilliant close at the Versailles Baroque Music Centre.

Dagmar Šašková frequently performs at concerts with orchestras such as the Versailles Baroque Music Centre, Akadêmia, Correspondances, Il Festino, La Fenice, La Rêveuse, Le Concert brisé, Les Paladins, Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, Sagittarius, or Musica Florea. She took part in the recordings of Marc Antoine Charpentier’s Sacred Stories and Pierre Robert’s Grands Motets with the Versailles Baroque Music Centre conducted by Olivier Schneebeli, as well as in the extracts from Opella Nova and Israelis Brünnlein by Johann Hermann Schein with the Sagittarius orchestra conducted by Michel Laplénie. She also recorded Dietrich Buxtehude’s Cantatas for soprano with Le Concert brisé conducted by William Dongois, the Italian Aria from the Time of Louis 13th of France and Arie da cantarsi of Stefano Landi with the Il Festino orchestra (Manuel de Grange), and finally Johann Sebastian Bach’s B-Minor Mass with the Pygmalion orchestra conducted by Raphaël Pichon. More recent contributions to her discography include The Royal Night Concert with the orchestra Les Correspondances (Sébastien Daucè), Natale in Italia with La Fenice (Jean Tubéry), the motets La Majesté of Lalande with Le poème harmonique orchestra conducted by Vincent Dumestre, and finally Michel Lambert’s and Sébastien Le Camus’ Douce Félicité as well the duos Donna by Monteverdi, both with the Il Festino orchestra (Manuel de Grange).

In 2010, Dagmar Šašková performed as Corisande in Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Amadis opera in a coproduction between the Versailles Baroque Music Centre and the Avignon Theatre (direction Olivier Schneebeli) (Avignon and Massy Opera Houses). In 2011, with Musica Florea of Marek Štryncl, she sang the role of Apollo in George Friedrich Händel’s Terpsicore in baroque theatres of Český Krumlov and Mnichovo Hradiště in the Czech Republic. She also performed as Moschino, Ninfa, Rubanière, and Fleure in L’Egisto of Marco Marazzoli et Virgilio Mazzocchi conducted by Jérôme Correas (Les Palladins) at the Massy Opera House and in the Theatre l’Athénée in Paris, in Cergy-Pontoise, … In 2013, she sang Melanto in Ritorno d’Ulysse in patria by Claudio Monteverdi conducted by Jérôme Correas (Les Palladins) (Massy, Théâtre Gérard-Philipe Saint-Denis, Reims, Nice, Saint-Quentin en Yvelines, …). She then left for New Delhi to sing Ninfa in Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo by Akadêmia conducted by Françoise Lasserre (also Cité de la Musique in Paris). In 2014, with the orchestra La Fenice of Jean Tubéry, Dagmar Šašková interpreted the title role of Dido in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in Lyon and in Uzès (concert version). In 2016, she left for a tour in South Korea where she sang the role of Judith in Marc Antoine Charpentier’s Sacred Stories accompanied by the Versailles Baroque Music Centre (direction Olivier Schneebeli, stage manager Ana Yepes). On the tour of the Orfeo par-delà le Gange in 2016 in France, she sang la Musica and la Messagiera on the stage of Arsenal in Metz and in the Reims opera. She has interpreted five roles in the L’Europe Galante of André Campra in the Wienerkonzerthaus in Vienna in 2018, with La Simphonie du Marais orchestra of Hugo Reyne. She sang Aurora in the Il mondo alla roversa opera of Baldassare Galuppi in the Grand Avignon opera and in the Philharmony of Paris, with the Akadêmia orchestra conducted by Françoise Lasserre.

Dagmar Šašková occasionally performs with other Czech artists as well, for example the organist Kateřina Chroboková with whom she has been giving regular recitals of baroque music. With the pianist Vendula Urbanová, she gave a series of concerts of the 19th and 20th century Czech music (romantism) at the Czech Center in Paris.