Mayan Rachel Goldenfeld is an Italian-Israeli soprano based in Bielefeld, Germany, where she has been a soloist at Theater Bielefeld since the 2023/24 season. Recognized for her vocal prowess, musicality, and impressive stage presence, she is equally celebrated for her acting skills and versatility across a broad range of repertoire. Her performances encompass both opera and theater, showcasing her exceptional vocal range and artistic depth.
In the 2023/25 season, Mayan is slated to make several exciting role debuts at Theater Bielefeld, including Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Lenio in The Greek Passion, and the title role of Alice im Wunderland by Pierangelo Valtinoni. She will also reprise her role as Nanetta in Falstaff and portray Tülay in the theater production Die Optimistinnen.
Mayan’s engagements for the 2024/25 season include a return to Ensemble I Gemelli for a recording and concert tour of Monteverdi's Vespero della Beata Vergine. Additionally, she will perform as soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2under the baton of Ilya Ram with the Akademische Philharmonie Heidelberg.
Throughout the 2023/24 season, Mayan performed a variety of roles at Theater Bielefeld, including Nanetta in Falstaff, St. Marguerite in Honegger's Jeanne au Bûcher, Frasquita in Carmen, and Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She also appeared as a soloist with the Bielefelder Philharmoniker and in the play Die Optimistinnen, in which she portrayed the character Tülay.
Mayan’s guest appearances in the 2023/24 season included Minerva in Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria with Ensemble I Gemelli at the Opera National de Bordeaux, Angers Nantes Opéra, and Concert d'automne Tours, as well as continued performances with Ensemble La Petite Band in their ongoing tour of Così fan tutte as Despina and her Gewandhous debut with the Leipzig University Orchestra under the baton of Ilya Ram.
In the 2022/23 season, Mayan participated in the Bielefelder Studio at Theater Bielefeld, an intensive program focused on training singers in opera, acting, and dance. She performed the leading role of Sie in the world premiere of At Your Doorstep, the 4th Blumenmädchen in Parsifal, Natalia in Zazà, and Ida in Die Fledermaus. As a soloist with the Bielefelder Philharmoniker, she sang in Bach’s St. John Passion and the New Year’s Concert. She also made her acting debut as Zagorka in the critically acclaimed play Herkunft by Saša Stanišić.
Other career highlights include performances as Despina in Così fan tutte and in Matthäuspassion at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Erice in L’Ormindo by Cavalli at the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden, and the title role in Stradella’s La Circe at Teatro Torlonia. She has also performed as Amor and Damigella in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea, Sangaride in Lully’s Atys, Dorilla in Hasse’s La Serva Scaltra, the title role in Jommeli’s Didone Abbandonata for an SWR2 broadcast at the Schwetzingen Festspiele, and Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Equally at home on the concert stage, some of Mayan's recent concert repertoire includes Bach's St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, the Chichester Psalms, and Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, among others.
As a singer with a real passion for early music repertoire, Mayan has performed with renowned conductors and early music specialists, including Sigiswald Kuijken, Werner Ehrhardt, Andrea de Carlo, and Michael Hofstetter. In 2022, she co-founded the early music duo Sull'onde with harpsichordist Tung Han Hu. The duo won the prestigious Bärenreiter Prize at the 2022 Handel Competition in Göttingen, an achievement that led to Mayan being named a Bärenreiter Jubilee Ambassador. Her other awards include being a finalist at the Froville International Baroque Competition, a prize-winner at the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg Competition, and recipient of several honors such as the Brooklyn College Theater and Performance Award, 1st prize at the Buchmann-Mehta Vocal Competition, the Berlin Song Festival Merit Scholarship, the AICF Excellence Scholarship, and the Buchman-Heiman Scholarship.
Mayan holds a Bachelor's degree in Music from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, where she studied with Efrat Ben Nun, and a Master's degree from Brooklyn College Conservatory in New York under the guidance of Patricia McCaffrey. She furthered her vocal studies at the Baroque Vocal Excellence Program at the Hochschule für Musik in Mainz and earned an Advanced Studies Certificate in Early Music from the Berlin University of the Arts, where she studied with Doerthe Maria Sandmann. Mayan regularly works with Abbie Furmansky at her private voice studio in Berlin.