Julia Kleiter, soprano

Limburg-born soprano Julia Kleiter studied with Prof. William Workmann in Hamburg and with Prof. Klesie Kelly-Moog in Cologne. In 2004, she made her debut at the Opéra-Bastille in Paris as Pamina – a role she performed in the following ten years in numerous productions in Madrid, Zurich, New York, Munich or at the Salzburg Festival under the musical direction of conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Marc Minkowski, Claudio Abbado, Adam Fischer or most recently Philippe Jordan.
Most recently she sang Beethoven’s 9th Symphony under Barenboim in Berlin, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater in Munich, Dvořák’s Requiem in Berlin or Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri in Frankfurt and Zurich. She performed Brahms’ German Requiem in London. Haydn’s Creation took Julia Kleiter to La Scala in Milan and Berlin. On tour with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under Christian Thielemann in May 22, she was the soprano in Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony, taking another step towards the great lyric repertoire.
At the Royal Opera House Covent Garden she was the Contessa in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro under Sir John Eliot Gardiner and at La Scala Milan under Daniel Harding. Also at La Scala she sang Agathe in Weber’s Freischütz and Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo. Donna Anna at the Hamburg State Opera and at the Elbphilharmonie or Eva in Wagner’s Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Daniel Barenboim in Berlin and under Phillippe Jordan in Paris are further highlights of the recent past.
The last few years have been affected by numerous cancellations due to Corona, so unfortunately role debuts as Arabella under Fabio Luisi at the Zurich Opera House or her debut as the Countess in Capriccio in Zurich could not take place. In the 2021/22 season Julia Kleiter shone in the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s opera Eurydice – Die Liebenden blind at the Amsterdam Opera. In 2022/23 Julia Kleiter will make up for her role debut as Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in Brussels and return to the Bavarian State Opera as Agathe and to the Semperoper in Dresden as Eva and Contessa.
On the concert stage Julia Kleiter can be heard in the current season under the baton of Raphael Pichon in Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang in Dortmund, Bordeaux and Grenoble, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons in Mendelssohn’s Paulus and at the Salzburg Easter Festival in Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem.
Julia Kleiter is also an outstanding performer on the Lied stage, appearing in evenings at London’s Wigmore Hall and at the Schubertiada in Schwarzenberg and Vilabertran. In Christian Gerhaher’s large-scale project on the song oeuvre of Hugo Wolf, she was the soprano partner in the Spanish Songbook in Heidelberg, London, Madrid, Munich as well as at the Salzburg Festival.
Numerous CDs and DVDs document her artistic work, including her recording of songs by Franz Liszt and Julius Drake at the piano, which has been available on Hyperion since January 2020. In Christian Gerhaher’s complete Schumann recording released by Sony, she takes on a weighty part, accompanied on the piano by Gerold Huber.

Hartmut Höll, pianist

Hartmut Höll’s pianism is distinguished by an awareness of sound textures. He sensitively finds emotion at the heart of music, creating sonic atmospheres and bringing emotions to life. For over three decades, Höll has been in demand as one of the music world’s most esteemed chamber musicians and lieder accompanists. Focusing on a few choice musical partners of magisterial talent, Höll has consciously cultivated a rare consistency – and longevity – in performance collaborations in hundreds of concerts and over 70 recordings, many of which have received international awards.

Between 1982 and 1992, Hartmut Höll performed as the legendary baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s titular accompanist, in hundreds of concerts and many recordings both live and in the studio. Höll and Fischer-Dieskau were applauded in concert at the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Florence, Munich, and Berlin Festivals as well as New York’s Carnegie Hall.

For over 30 years, Höll has performed lieder concerts all over the world with the distinguished Japanese-German mezzo-soprano Mitsuko Shirai. The recordings by Höll and Shirai on the Capriccio label have won multiple prizes, and are considered among the most significant modern recordings of the lieder repertoire.

Höll and Shirai have also recorded CDs of melodies by Lili Boulanger ( Bayer Records); Spohr and Burgmüller (MDG); and notably, a complete recording of the modern Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck’s monumental song cycle, “Das holde Bescheiden” (settings of the poems of the 19th century German poet Eduard Mörike). Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau also sang on this landmark recording of “Das holde Bescheiden” (Claves Records).

Since 2001, Höll has accompanied the famed American soprano Renée Fleming in tours through Europe, Asia, and the USA. He has also performed with counter-tenor Jochen Kowalski; tenor Christoph Prégardien; the late baritone Hermann Prey; the British baritone David Wilson-Johnson; the Polish contralto Jadwiga Rappé; the German tenor Peter Schreier; the Polish soprano Urszula Kryger; and the German baritones Roman Trekel and Hanno Müller-Brachmann.

Previously a full professor at the conservatories of Frankfurt and Cologne, Germany, Hartmut Höll currently teaches at the Karlsruhe Conservatory where he maintains a close connection to the younger generation of performers. He has given seminars and master classes in Finland; the Weimar International Music Seminar; the Schleswig Holstein Festival; the Salzburg Mozarteum; in Jerusalem; and the USA. In 1998-99 Höll served as visiting professor at the Helsinki Conservatory and at the Salzburg Mozarteum between 1994 and 2003. Starting in autumn 2004, he is visiting professor of lieder at the Zurich ConservatorySince October 2007 Hartmut Höll is dean of the University of Music Karlsruhe.