Tania Kross was born in Curaçao on the 3^rd of August 1976. She knew from a very young age that she wanted to step on to a podium but she didn’t yet know in what genre she wanted to perform. Eventually the Curaçaoan conductor Frank Davelaar introduced her to classical music and it has fascinated ever since. It paved the way for her to become the famous mezzo soprano opera singer she is now.

Her first CD ‘Corazón’ went on to win an Edison Music Award and featured a variety of songs from well-known Curaçaoan composers like Emilio Prudencia, René Clemencia and Chin Behilia. Her biggest project to date was the much praised opera of the novel about a slave titled ‘Katibu di Shon (The Master’s Slave)’ written by Carel de Haseth, the first Papiamentu opera. She worked as producer on this production, with the libretto provided by Carel de Haseth and music provided by Randal Corsen. ‘Katibu di Shon’ premiered in Amsterdam in May of 2013.

She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees cum laude at the Utrecht Conservatory. Her light shined bright even beyond her conservatory as she won several competitions during her time there. These include the first prize of the Stichting Jong Muziektalent (Foundation Young Music Talent Netherlands), the Rosa Ponselle International Competition for Vocal Arts in New York and the Cristina Deutekom Competition.

She made her international debut in 2007 with the Staatsopera Stuttgart in Germany, playing the role of Carmen. She has gone on to tour the various concert halls of the world, performing on stages in Brussels, Paris, Salzburg, Hannover, Vienna, Athens, Birmingham, Cologne and New York. She also represented the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the prestigious BBC Singer of the World Contest in Cardiff, Wales, in 2003.
In addition to her career, Tania also works for various organizations for the benefit of youth, culture and education. She is the ambassador of Het Leerorkest (The Orchestra for Learning), for example, on whose behalf she collects instruments every year in a national campaign to add to the organization’s collection of instruments.

In addition to this, as an ambassador of the Royal Association of Opera and Oratorio in the Netherlands, she strives to extend the reach of classical music to a wider range of audiences. Due to all her talents and her efforts to preserve and enrich the arts in the Netherlands, she was appointed as a member of the Academy of Arts in 2015. This is an organisation, launched in 2014 by the Royal Dutch Academy of Science, of which only prominent artists of different artistic fields in the Netherlands can be named members.

This year she participated in the program Beste Zangers(Best Singers), formerly known as Beste Zangers van Nederland (Best Singers of the Netherlands). She was the first opera singer ever to do so.

Tania Kross is another prime example of how far the talents of Curaçaoans reach and we thank her for all she has done to shine a positive light on Curaçao internationally.