Few artists of her generation are as successful in so many spheres and with such a varied repertoire as Juliane Banse.

For the past 30 years, Juliane Banse has been one of Germany’s leading lyric sopranos, building a strong reputation in the opera, concert and Lied repertoires, and displaying a stylistic versatility that has enabled her to approach a remarkably wide range of repertoire, from Mozart to György Kurtág.

Her exceptionally broad opera repertoire includes the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito, Genoveva, Leonore, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Arabella and Grete in Schreker’s Der ferne Klang. She made her stage début at the age of twenty as Pamina in Harry Kupfer’s production of The Magic Flute at the Komische Oper Berlin. Her performance as Snow White in the world première of Heinz Holliger’s opera Schneewittchen at Zurich Opera House remains one of the defining moments of her career, and she has maintained a close artistic collaboration with Holliger ever since.

Born in southern Germany and raised in Zurich, Juliane Banse first studied with Paul Steiner and later with Ruth Rohner at Zurich Opera House, before completing her studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich. In recent seasons, she appeared as the Marschallin in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, marking her role début, in the world première production of Holliger’s Lunea in Zurich, and in Manfred Trojahn’s new opera Septembersonate in Düsseldorf. She also sang in the world première of Willem Jeths’s Poe-based monodrama The Tell-Tale Heart at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Juliane Banse has appeared on major international opera stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang Arabella, and made her US opera début in Chicago as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. Other important engagements have included the title role in Grigory Frid’s Diary of Anne Frank at the Theater an der Wien, Jeanne d’Arc in Braunfels’s opera of the same name in Cologne, Elsa von Brabant in Wagner’s Lohengrin in Nantes and Angers, and the title role in Poulenc’s La voix humaine at Cologne Opera, with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Staatsoper im Schillertheater in Berlin.

She is also highly sought after as a concert singer and has worked with many renowned conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Manfred Honeck, Daniel Harding and Christoph Poppen. Lied recitals are a central part of her artistic activity, with performances at venues and festivals such as the Schubertiade Vilabertran, Oxford, Schloss Elmau and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.

Her rich discography includes many award-winning recordings. Two of her recordings received an ECHO Klassik Award: Walter Braunfels’s Jeanne d’Arc with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck, and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under David Zinman. Other notable projects include the album of opera arias Per Amore, the Lied recording Tief in der Nacht with Aleksandar Madžar, and the film Hunter’s Bride / Der Freischütz with the London Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, in which she sang Agathe. Her recording Unanswered Love, with works by Reimann, Rihm and Henze, recorded with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and Christoph Poppen, was released to great critical acclaim.

Recent additions to her discography include Hindemith’s song cycle Das Marienleben, recorded with pianist Martin Helmchen, as well as orchestral songs by the Swiss composer Heinrich Sutermeister. Schubert’s Winterreise, again with Martin Helmchen, will be released soon on ECM. In 2025, she was awarded the Hindemith-Preis der Stadt Hanau for her interpretation and promotion of the composer’s oeuvre.

After five years as a professor at Düsseldorf’s Robert Schumann Hochschule, she took up a similar position in 2020 at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. In 2023, she began teaching at the prestigious Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. Together with Christoph Poppen, she is the Artistic Director of the Marvão International Music Festival (FIMM), Portugal.

More info: www.julianebanse.com

Christoph Poppen is one of the most versatile artists of his generation. As a conductor, he has established an international reputation through innovative programming, which includes a strong commitment to contemporary music.

Frequently sought after as a Guest Conductor, he has led many of the world’s important orchestras. He currently serves as the Principal Conductor of the Cologne Chamber Orchestra and as the Music Director of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.

As the founder and first violinist of the Cherubini Quartet, he performed with this ensemble for over 20 years. The ‘morimur’ project, a CD co-created with the Hilliard Ensemble, achieved worldwide success.

As an educator, Christoph Poppen has taught at and chaired several prominent music schools in Germany over the years. He was a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and currently teaches at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.

In 2014, he founded the Marvão International Music Festival (FIMM), where he is the Artistic Director, and in 2019, he established the International Academy of Marvão for Music, Arts, and Sciences.

He served as the Founding Artistic Director of ‘Classic Revolution’ Festival at Lotte Hall in Seoul, South Korea, from 2020 to 2022.

More info at: www.christophpoppen.com