The alto Wiebke Lehmkuhl, originally from Oldenburg, received her musical training with Ulla Groenewold and Hanna Schwarz at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. While still a student, she was engaged as a permanent member of the ensemble at the Zurich Opera House, having previously appeared as a guest at the state operas in Hamburg and Hanover as well as at Theater Kiel. She achieved her international breakthrough in 2012 at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Her repertoire ranges from Monteverdi, Handel and Bach to the great Romantic oratorios and the works of Mahler and Wagner. With this broad stylistic spectrum, she is equally at home on the world’s leading concert platforms and major opera stages. She regularly collaborates with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Orchestre de Paris, the Concertgebouworkest, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bamberger Symphoniker, working with conductors including Kirill Petrenko, Klaus Mäkelä, Daniel Harding, Riccardo Chailly, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Philippe Jordan, Paavo Järvi, Antonio Pappano and Tarmo Peltokoski.
A key role in her operatic repertoire is Erda in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Siegfried, 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.
Wiebke Lehmkuhl opens the 2026/27 season with Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä and with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Marc Albrecht. At the Bavarian State Opera, she returns as Erda in Tobias Kratzer’s highly acclaimed new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Further highlights of the season include Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Orchestre national de Lyon, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Vienna and Hamburg, as well as a tour featuring Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. She performs Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko, with the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Klaus Mäkelä, with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, and in Luxembourg and Zurich under Paavo Järvi. Further engagements take her to Hong Kong and Berlin with Mahler’s Second Symphony, to Madrid with Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, to the Mozarteum Salzburg with Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, and to Santander for a recital.
Highlights of recent seasons include Mahler projects in Toulouse, the Canary Islands and Lyon, Mendelssohn’s Elias at the Zurich Opera House and the Salzburg Easter Festival, as well as tours with Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. She has also appeared at leading European music centres in works including Mahler’s Second, Third and Eighth Symphonies, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri.
Wiebke Lehmkuhl’s artistic work is documented on numerous CD recordings, including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly (Decca) and C. P. E. Bach’s Magnificat with the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under Hans-Christoph Rademann (Harmonia Mundi).
