The contralto Wiebke Lehmkuhl, originally from Oldenburg, studied with Ulla Groenewold and Hanna Schwarz at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. While still a student, she joined the ensemble of Opernhaus Zürich; she achieved her international breakthrough in 2012 at the Salzburg Festival under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Today, she is considered one of the most sought-after altos of her generation and regularly works with leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and The Cleveland Orchestra, collaborating with conductors including Kirill Petrenko, Klaus Mäkelä, Daniel Harding, Riccardo Chailly, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Philippe Jordan and Paavo Järvi. One of her signature operatic roles is Erda in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Siegfried, a role with which she has enjoyed great success at the Bavarian State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, the Opéra national de Paris and the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
The 2026/27 season opens with Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Marc Albrecht. Further highlights include her return as Erda at the Bavarian State Opera, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko, as well as performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Münchner Philharmoniker under Klaus Mäkelä, the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Paavo Järvi in Luxembourg and Zurich, and concerts in Madrid, Hong Kong, Salzburg and Santander.