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The German soprano, Katharina Held, received her first violin lessons at the age of 4, later also piano and horn. At the age of 7, she became a member of the Mädchenchor Hannover (MCH), and from 2009, she received singing lessons under the choir director and lecturer Gudrun Schröfel. With the Mädchenchor Hannover, she undertook concert tours to China, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia, the USA, and Switzerland. Collaborations with renowned conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Andrew Manze, and David Stern have shaped her education. Several of the singer's solo roles have been recorded on CD's; at the Staatsoper Hannover; she repeatedly sang, among other roles, the First Boy in W.A. Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte. For a time, she studied singing in Berlin with Julie Kaufmann at the Universität der Künste Berlin. There, she sang roles including Maddalena in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims and Lucy in Menotti's The Telephone. Master-classes with Christiane Iven, Klesie Kelly-Moog, and Hilde Sveen, among others, provided further inspiration.
Katharina Held has received several awards at the Musikwettbewerb Jugend Musiziert. In 2014, she won first prize at the Bundeswettbewerbs in the solo singing category in Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel. In July 2014, she sang the role of the Shepherd Boy in Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover at the NDR Klassik Open Air. Also in 2014, the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung supported the singer with a two-week RAM scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Katharina Held is a frequent guest at the MCH, Norddeutschen Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, and Nürnberger Symphoniker. In the summer of 2022, she performed the title role in Pauline Viardot's opera Cendrillon at the Kleines Haus of the Theater Freiburg. At the beginning of 2023, she sang the role of Gretchen in Albert Lortzing's production of Der Wildschütz at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. In February 2022, she completed her master's degree at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg under the direction of Mareike Morr with the highest grade. Since the 2024-2025 season, she has been a member of the Opernchorakademie des Theaters Basel and can be seen in various productions (including as a soloist). A highlight of this year was the soprano role in Dvořák's Stabat Mater with the Norddeutschen Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester under the direction of Stanislav Kochanovsky (broadcast live on NDR Kultur).
In addition to the opera stage and concert performances, Katharina Held is also passionate about performing chamber music, contemporary music, and singing in choirs and smaller ensembles, such as the Larynx Vokalensemble Basel, Davos Festival Kammerchor, Ensemble Vocal Origen, Kammerchor Stuttgart (Director: Frieder Bernius) and Chor der J.S. Bach-Stiftung St. Gallen (Director: Rudolf Lutz). |
