Portrait Juliane Banse

Juliane Banse

Soprano
© Elsa Okazaki
General Management

Few artists of her generation are as successful in so many areas with such a wide range of repertoire as the soprano Juliane Banse. Her operatic repertoire ranges from Feldmarschallin, Figaro Countess, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia to Genoveva, Leonore, Tatjana, Arabella and Grete (Schreker's Der ferne Klang). Her artistic breakthrough came at the age of 20 as Pamina at the Komische Oper Berlin in a production by Harry Kupfer. Her appearance at Zurich Opera as Snow White in the world premiere of the opera of the same name by Heinz Holliger, with whom she has always had a close working relationship, is also unforgettable.

Born in southern Germany and raised in Zurich, she 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 in the winter semester 2023. She also gives master classes at home and abroad and is a sought-after jury member at international competitions.

In the concert field, 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 4 Women from Shakespeare for her. She performed Heinz Holliger's composition Dämmerlicht in São Paulo in June 2022 and his composition Puneigä in Geneva in September 2022. In February 2024, Juliane Banse will give a guest performance at the Kölner Philharmonie with the WDR Rundfunkchor under the musical direction of Christoph Poppen.

Lied recitals and chamber music have always been an essential part of the calendar. At the International Oxford Song Festival, Juliane Banse will appear with her much sought-after project Winterreise in October 2023, sung and danced by Juliane Banse (together with dancer István Simon) and accompanied on the piano by Alexander Krichel, choreographed by Andreas Heise.

In the opera field, Juliane Banse most recently appeared on stage 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. Notable engagements include the leading roles in the monodrama THE TELL-TALE HEART by Dutch composer Willem Jeths at the Concertgebouw, Grigori Frid's Diary of Anne Frank at the Theater an der Wien, 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 was most recently seen as Rosalinde (Fledermaus) in Chicago and in Strauss' Arabella (Zdenka) at the MET in New York. In the season 23/24, the world premiere of the chamber play Septembersonate (as Alice Stavert) by Manfred Trojan under the baton of Vitali Alekseenok (directed by Johannes Erath) is scheduled at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein/Düsseldorf.

Numerous of her CD recordings have won awards, two of which were awarded the Echo Klassik: Braunfels' Jeanne d'Arc with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Manfred Honeck (World Premiere Recording of the Year) and Mahler's 8th Symphony with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under the baton of David Zinman. In February 2017, her CD "Unanswered Love" with works by Reimann, Rihm and Henze, some of them recorded for the first time and dedicated to her, with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and Christoph Poppen, was released. With the Munich Radio Orchestra she recorded the CD "Im Arm der Liebe" with works by Braunfels, Korngold, Marx and Pfitzner. Hindemith's "Marienleben" is a work particularly close to the artist's heart and she has released it on CD together with Martin Helmchen. Of the projects of recent seasons, Holliger's "Luena" with Christian Gerhaher (label: ECM) and Hindemith's "Cardillac" were released on CD by the BRKlassic label.

For further information, please visit www.julianebanse.de

 




14. January 2024 - 18:30

Düsseldorf, Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg

Manfred Trojahn: Septembersonate, Kammerspiel in 6 Szenen

Info & Tickets



27. January 2024 - 19:30

Düsseldorf, Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg

Manfred Trojahn: Septembersonate, Kammerspiel in 6 Szenen

Info & Tickets



7. April 2024 - 11:00

Köln, Kölner Philharmonie

Info & Tickets



  • But as singer and dancer moved around the performing space, sometimes apart, sometimes entwined, the focus never wavered, for extraordinarily, Banse showed that she was capable of singing with her familiar beauty of tone and punctilious focus on the text in whatever position the choreography placed her, whether lying on the floor, spread across Simon’s back, or huddled against the piano as if taking refuge from the world. There was nothing reductive about these movements, no lapses into naturalistic depictions; everything was still channelled through the texts and Schubert’s response to them, which Banse and Krichel projected with such faithfulness and vivid musical intelligence.
  • „Juliane Banse favorisiert bei Mozart-Liedern eine empfindende, natürlich strömende, entwaffnend anmutige Vortragsweise. Alles klingt bei ihr sehr verinnerlicht, wie aus einem meditativem Versenken heraus. Das Melos blüht nur in zartesten Nuancen auf, nichts wirkt manieriert oder forciert, alles erklingt in einer wunderbar ausgeglichenen, makellosen Stimmführung. Der schlanke, beseelte, mädchenhaft klar timbrierte Klang einer ökonomisch geführten, unverbrauchten glockenhellen Stimme nimmt gefangen […]. [Sie] gestaltet sehr intensiv und expressiv – ohne allerdings die klangliche Ästhetik ihrer hoch kultivierten Stimmgebung in Reinkultur von Intonation und klarer Diktion aufzugeben.“
  • "Dazu die so wunderbar grundierte Stimme von Juliane Banse, deren Gesang sich immer wieder in sensible, tänzerische Haltungen des Körpers zu wandeln vermag und dies immer in einer Art spürbarer, seelischer Verbindung zum Pianisten Alexander Krichel, der die Emotionen der Bewegungen des Gesanges in seinem Spiel aufnimmt."
  • "Dabei war es in erster Linie das tiefe Register, mit dem Juliane Banse zu beeindrucken wusste. Erstaunlich auch, wie diese ihre meist aus dem Pianissimo angesetzten Töne trugen, zunächst mit dem Klang des kleinen Orchesterapparats hinter ihr verschmolzen, um dann doch die Szene zu dominieren. (...) Dafür entstanden umso eindrucksvollere Stimmungsbilder, intensiv und farbenreich."
  • "Juliane Banse likes to move with her voice. That should be a given for a classical music vocalist, but Banse doesn’t just want to evoke emotion among the members of her audience; she also likes to shake a leg herself."



Elisabeth Ehlers

Elisabeth Ehlers

Director, General Management
e-mail
+49 89 44488790
Katharina Klapsing

Katharina Klapsing

Associate Artist Manager
On maternity leave.
Sophie Kurzbauer

Sophie Kurzbauer

e-mail
Assistant Artist Manager
+49 89 444887910

  HIGHLIGHTS 2023/2024