Few artists of her generation are as successful in so many fields with such a diverse repertoire as soprano Juliane Banse. Her opera repertoire ranges from the Feldmarschallin, Countess in Figaro, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia, Genoveva, Leonore, Tatjana, Arabella to Grete (Schreker's Der ferne Klang). She made her artistic breakthrough at the age of 20 as Pamina at the Komische Oper Berlin in a production by Harry Kupfer. Her performance at the Zurich Opera House as Snow White in the world premiere of the opera of the same name by Heinz Holliger, with whom she has always worked closely, is also unforgettable.
Born in southern Germany and raised in Zurich, the artist first took lessons with Paul Steiner, later with Ruth Rohner at the Zurich Opera House, and then completed her studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich. She teaches as a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and has taken over the direction of the singing class at the Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid for the winter semester of 2023. She also gives master classes at home and abroad and is a sought-after jury member at international competitions.
In the concert arena, the artist performs a wide-ranging repertoire, which has brought her together with renowned conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Marin Alsop, Zubin Mehta, and Manfred Honeck. Most recently, Manfred Trojahn wrote the chamber music version of his work 4 Women from Shakespeare for her voice. In June 2022, she performed Heinz Holliger's composition Dämmerlicht in São Paulo, and in September 2022, she performed his composition Puneigä in Geneva.
Recitals and chamber music have always been an integral part of her calendar.
Together with dancer István Simon, she regularly performs singing and dancing in her popular project Winterreise oder Mozart – Selig neben dir (Winter Journey or Mozart – Blessed beside you), accompanied on the piano by Alexander Krichel and choreographed by Andreas Heise.
In the opera field, Juliane Banse most recently appeared in Cologne in the revival of Walter Braunfels' Jeanne d'Arc in the title role and in Zurich in the world premiere of Heinz Holliger's opera Lunea. She also sang the Marschallin in Strauss' Rosenkavalier for the first time, a role she had wanted to perform for years. Noteworthy engagements include the leading roles in the monodrama THE TELL-TALE HEART by Dutch composer Willem Jeths at the Concertgebouw, in Grigori Frid's Diary of Anne Frank at the Theater an der Wien, in Poulenc's mono-opera La Voix humaine at the Staatsoper in Berlin and the Cologne Opera, and Elsa von Brabant in Wagner's Lohengrin in Nantes and Anger. In the USA, she most recently appeared as Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) in Chicago and in Strauss' Arabella (Zdenka) at the MET in New York. In the 25/26 season, she will appear at the Bavarian State Opera as the Mother in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Kathinka (Smetana: The Bartered Bride) and Marcellina (Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro). She will also sing Dvořák's Te Deum in Oviedo under the baton of Lucas Macias. Recitals will take her to Corvey and Oxford.
Numerous CD recordings by the artist have won awards, with two receiving the Echo Klassik: Braunfels' Jeanne d'Arc with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck (world premiere recording of the year) and Mahler's 8th Symphony with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under David Zinman. In February 2017, her CD „Unanswered Love“ was released to much media acclaim, featuring works by Reimann, Rihm, and Henze, some of which were recorded for the first time and dedicated to her, which she released with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and Christoph Poppen. With the Munich Radio Orchestra, she recorded the CD „Im Arm der Liebe“ (In the Arms of Love) with works by Braunfels, Korngold, Marx, and Pfitzner. Hindemith's Marienleben is a work that is particularly close to the artist's heart and which she has released on CD together with Martin Helmchen. Of the projects from recent seasons, Holliger's Luena with Christian Gerhaher (label: ECM) and Hindemith's Cardillac have been released on CD by the BRKlassic label.
Further information can be found on the artist's personal website www.julianebanse.de.
