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The German mezzo-soprano, Mareike Morr, took piano and recorder lessons since the age of 4. As a teenager, she regularly participated in "Jugend musiziert" competitions and was repeatedly awarded the German Federal Prize for her solo piano and piano chamber music recitals. After graduating form high school in 1996, she took up studies at the University of Music and Drama in Hannover, where she registered in the program Instrumental Education and studied piano under Professor Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. During her studies, she also held a teaching post at the Municipal Music College Braunschweig for 2 1/2 years. She graduated with a degree in 2000 and passed her Chamber Music examination in the subject Song Accompaniment in 2001. In 2000, she began her voice training with Professor Carol Richardson-Smith in Hannover. From 2003 until 2006, she studied under Professor Christiane Iven and subsequently worked with Sylvia Bleimund. In the course of her studies, she also attended Lied classes taught by Professor Jan Philip Schulze, Graìnne Dunne, and Justus Zeyen. She completed her studies in 2007 with two additional degrees (opera singing and vocal coach), and since then has been working with Charlotte Lehmann. Morr complemented her artistic education through numerous master-classes and studied with Judith Beckmann and Irving Beckmann, Ingeborg Danz, Rudolf Piernay, Eugen Rabine, Aribert Reimann, Norman Shetler, Kurt Widmer, and at the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart.
Mareike Morr’s busy concert schedule as singer and oratorio performer included a trip to Chile, where she performed at the music festival "Semanas musicales" in 2001. In 2002, she sang the alto part of J.S. Bach's Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) and worked with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Cologne and the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris, among others. In 2005, she performed songs from Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the orchestra of the Medical University Hannover and sang the alto part in Felix Mendelssohn's Elias. During the seasons of 2006 and 2007 she recorded several songs composed by György Ligeti and Aribert Reimann with the NDR - a Hamburg radio broadcasting company - as part of the series "das neue werk". In the summer of 2006 she was invited to participate in the festival "AlpenKlassik", and on this occasion presented a world premiere of a song cycle composed by Wolfgang Rihm. She also performed in Belarus, Spain, and in the USA.
Mareike Morr teaches Vocal Interpretation classes at the "Musikakademie für Senioren" (Music Academy for Seniors) (MAS) in Hamburg. She received scholarships from the "Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes", Germany's largest and oldest scholarship institution, as well as from the Richard-Wagner Association. Since 2006, she has been enjoying a scholarship from the Yehudi-Menuhin Foundation titled "Live Music Now". Her outstanding performance in her degree examination in opera singing was recognized with the awarding of the SOPHIA-Prize.
In the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 seasons, Mareike Morr was engaged as guest singer by the State Opera House Hannover, where she sang the parts of Jonny/Martin in The Little Sweep by Benjamin Britten, Countess Ceprano and the page boy in G. Verdi's "Rigoletto", the yodling girl Kathi in the operetta "Im Weißen Rössl" by R. Benatzky, and in May 2008 she performed the part of Alisa in "Lucia di Lammermoor" by G. Donizetti. For the 2008-2009 season, she is a member of the State Opera House Hannover's permanent cast. |
