German soprano Julia Kleiter received her musical training in Hamburg with Prof. William Workman and in Cologne with Prof. Klesie Kelly-Moog. In 2004, she made her debut at Opéra Bastille in Paris as Pamina—a role that launched her international career and which she subsequently sang at leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera New York, Teatro Real Madrid, Opernhaus Zürich, the Bavarian State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. Her early collaborations included conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Claudio Abbado, Marc Minkowski and Philippe Jordan.
Since then, Julia Kleiter has established herself as one of the leading lyric sopranos of her generation, equally at home on the opera stage and in the concert hall. Her extensive repertoire has been shaped through collaborations with artists including Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, René Jacobs, Ivor Bolton, Fabio Luisi and Andris Nelsons. Among her signature roles are the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Agathe in Der Freischütz, the Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann. She has appeared at major international institutions including the state opera houses of Berlin, Vienna and Munich, Hamburg State Opera, Opernhaus Zürich and La Monnaie in Brussels.
The 2026/27 season begins with a tour of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra under Keri-Lynn Wilson. In the Beethoven anniversary year, the composer’s music forms a central focus of Julia Kleiter’s concert engagements, including performances of the Missa solemnis in Paris, Stockholm, Frankfurt and Zurich, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Christian Thielemann in Berlin, and a season-concluding tour as Leonore in concert performances of Fidelio with the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado. Further highlights include Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem in Cleveland under Petr Popelka, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang at the Rheingau Music Festival with the Dresden Philharmonic, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder at TivoliVredenburg Utrecht and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
On the opera stage, Julia Kleiter returns to the Vienna State Opera at the turn of the year as Rosalinde in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. At Theater an der Wien, she takes on the title role in the new production of Beethoven’s Leonore, directed by Stefan Herheim. She also returns to Hamburg State Opera as the Contessa in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.
A distinguished Lied interpreter, Julia Kleiter is a regular guest at renowned venues and festivals including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Heidelberg Spring Festival, the Schubertiades in Schwarzenberg, Hohenems and Vilabertran, as well as Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal. Her longstanding collaboration with Christian Gerhaher has included performances of Hugo Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch at the Salzburg Festival, in London, Madrid and Heidelberg, as well as Schumann programmes in London, Hohenems and Munich. During the 2026/27 season, she appears in recital with Julian Prégardien and Sir András Schiff in Hamburg and at the Vienna Musikverein, and with Julius Drake in Berlin and Madrid.