Juliane Banse, soprano

Few artists of her generation are as successful in so many fields with such a varied repertoire as the soprano Juliane Banse. Her opera repertoire ranges from Marschallin, the Countess in Figaro, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia, Genoveva, Leonore, Tatyana, Arabella to Grete (Schreker’s Der ferne Klang). Her artistic breakthrough came at the age of 20 as Pamina in Harry Kupfer’s production of The Magic Flute in Berlin. Juliane Banse was born in southern Germany and grew up in Zurich. She took lessons first with Paul Steiner and later with Ruth Rohner at the Zurich Opera House, completing her studies under Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich. She holds a singing professorship at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, and will follow a call to the Mozarteum in Salzburg in the winter semester 20/21.

In the concert field, the artist has been working with renowned conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Marin Alsop, Zubin Mehta and Manfred Honeck.

In the 2020/2021 season Juliane Banse will again perform Schubert’s Winterreise in a danced and sung version. Guest performances in China and Australia are planned, as well as other exciting projects: Juliane Banse will perform Heinz Holliger’s Puneigae with the Contrechamps Ensemble under Holliger’s direction in Geneva, Zemlinsky’s Lyrical Symphony under the direction of Marko Letoja in Bremen and Strauss’ Four Last Songs in Berlin and in Toblach.

In the field of opera, Juliane Banse recently sang the title role in the revival of Jeanne d’Arc by Walter Braunfels in Cologne, in Zurich she performed the world premiere of Heinz Holliger’s opera Lunea. She also made her debut of the Marschallin in Strauss’ Rosenkavalier. Notable engagements include the leading roles in THE TELL-TALE HEART by the Dutch composer Willem Jeths in the Concertgebouw, in Girgory Frid’s Diary of Anne Frank at the Theater an der Wien, and Poulenc’s Voix humaine at the Berlin State Opera as well as Elsa von Brabant in Wagner’s Lohengrin in Nantes and Anger. In the USA, she most recently appeared as Rosalinde (Fledermaus) in Chicago and in Strauss’ Arabella (Zdenka) at the MET in New York. An opera performance of Four Women from Shakespeare, which the composer Manfred Trojahn wrote for Juliane Banse, is planned for the 20/21 season.

Lied recitals and chamber music feature regularly in Juliane Banse’s calendar. She can be heard at the Wigmore Hall in London as well as at the Schubertiade in Vilabertraán and in Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela.

Many of Juliane Banse’s recordings have won awards; two received an Echo Klassik: Braunfels’s Jeanne d’Arc with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich under David Zinman. She recorded the album Unanswered Love with the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern dedicated to Reimann, Rihm and Henze. Hindemith’s Marienleben is a work that the artist particularly enjoys singing and which she has recorded together with Martin Helmchen.