Wiebke Lehmkuhl, contralto from Oldenburg, studied in Hamburg with Ulla Groenewold and Hanna Schwarz and joined Zurich Opera while still a student. Her international breakthrough came in 2012 at the Salzburg Festival under Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Equally at home on the opera and concert stage, she collaborates with conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding, Fabio Luisi, and Riccardo Chailly. As Erda (Das Rheingold, Siegfried), she has appeared in Munich, Paris, London, and Geneva; in 2025/26, she debuts at the Vienna State Opera and tours Europe with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Nézet-Séguin.

Further highlights include Mahler’s Symphonies No. 2 (Basel), No. 3 (Rome, Vienna, St. Florian), and No. 8 (Copenhagen, Vienna), Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (Boston, Paris), Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri (Vienna, Paris), and a Lied recital in Cologne. Her discography includes Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Decca) and C. P. E. Bach’s Magnificat (Harmonia Mundi).