The contralto Wiebke Lehmkuhl, originally from Oldenburg, received her vocal training from Ulla Groenewold and Hanna Schwarz at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg. After guest engagements at the Kiel Opera House and the state operas of Hamburg and Hanover, she secured her first permanent position at the Zurich Opera House while still a student. In 2012, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Wiebke Lehmkuhl's exceptional versatility enables her to perform a wide repertoire ranging from Monteverdi, Handel, and Bach to the Romantic oratorios, as well as Mahler and Wagner. This makes her a sought-after soloist both on international concert stages and in opera. The contralto regularly performs with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the Orchestre de Paris, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. She collaborates with esteemed conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Klaus Mäkelä, Daniel Harding, and Riccardo Chailly. She is also a welcomed guest at major festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, and the Lucerne Festival.

On the opera stage, Wiebke Lehmkuhl has been seen at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals. She also appeared as Cornelia in a new production of Handel's Giulio Cesare at the Paris Palais Garnier. Her signature role is undoubtedly Erda in Wagner's Das Rheingold and Siegfried: "And with Wiebke Lehmkuhl's Erda in the third act, an operatic miracle occurred: An already excellent performance with excellent singers was elevated to a unique world-class level by a truly exceptional singer. Weighing each word yet weaving each word into the legato line, merging the ranges of her dreamlike contralto voice like ebony – Wiebke Lehmkuhl's primal mother deservedly takes the vocal crown of the evening." (Peter Krause, "OPERA REVIEW: GRAND THÉÂTRE DE GENÈVE – SIEGFRIED - Poetry instead of Politics", www.concerti.de; 15.02.2019). She has since performed this role on stages including the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Opéra de Bastille in Paris, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, collaborating with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Antonio Pappano, Marek Janowski, and Philippe Jordan. She will also be heard as Erda in the new Munich Ring Cycle, which begins with Das Rheingold in the 2024/25 season at the Bavarian State Opera under Vladimir Jurowski. Following this, she will take on the role of the Queen in a staged adaptation of Mendelssohn's Elijah, directed by Andreas Homoki and conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, at the Zurich Opera House.

At the Salzburg Easter Festival, she will perform this work in concert with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra before traveling to the United States to perform Mahler's 3rd Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Klaus Mäkelä. Mahler's works will continue to be a central part of her repertoire in the 2024/25 season: Symphony No. 2 in Toulouse, Symphony No. 3 at the International Music Festival of the Canary Islands, and Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestre National de Lyon under Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. However, Wiebke Lehmkuhl's heart also beats for Baroque music, especially the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. She will perform Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Bergen and on tour with B'Rock. During Passiontide, she will perform the Mass in B Minor with the Orchestre de Paris and Klaus Mäkelä and take on the alto part in the St. Matthew Passion at St. Michael's Church in Hamburg.

Wiebke Lehmkuhl's artistic achievements have been documented in numerous recordings, including J.S. Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly (Decca) and C.P.E. Bach's Magnificat with the RIAS Chamber Choir and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under Hans-Christoph Rademann (Harmonia Mundi).