With her varied and extensive repertoire, few artists of her generation have achieved the success of soprano Juliane Banse. Her operatic repertoire ranges from Marschallin, Contessa (The Marriage of Figaro), Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Genoveva (title role), Leonore, to Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Arabella and Grete (Der ferne Klang).
Her artistic breakthrough came at the age of 20 as Pamina in Harry Kupfer’s production of The Magic Flute at the Komische Oper Berlin. Her performance as Snow White in the world premiere of Heinz Holliger’s opera of the same name, with whom she maintains a close collaboration, at the Zurich Opera House was described as unforgettable.
Born in southern Germany and raised in Zurich, the soprano first received lessons from Paul Steiner and later from Ruth Rohner at the Zurich Opera, completing her studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich. Dedicated to teaching, since 2016-2017 she has been a professor of singing at the Robert Schuman Hochschule Düsseldorf. She has also taught at the Mozarteum in Salzburg since 2020-2021. In addition, she gives master classes both in her country and abroad. Since the 2023-2024 academic year, she has been Professor of the Voice Chair “Alfredo Kraus” Fundación Ramón Areces of the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.
Julian Banse played the main role in Walter Braunfels’ production of Jeanne d’Arc in Cologne, and performed in Zurich in the world premiere of Heinz Holliger’s opera Lunea. She also debuted as Marschallin in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier and played the role of Elsa von Brabant in Wagner’s Lohengrin in Nantes and Anger. She has performed in three notable monodramas: THE TELL-TALE HEART by the Dutch composer Willem Jeths at the Concertgebouw, The Diary of Anne Frank by Grigory Frid at the Theater an der Wien, La Voix humaine by Poulenc at the Berlin State Opera and the Cologne Opera, and premiered the cycle Four Women from Shakespere by Manfred Trojahn, composed especially for her voice. In the United States, Juliane Banse has most recently performed as Rosalinde (Fledermaus) in Chicago and Arabella (Zdenka) by Strauss at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Highly sought after in the concert field, the artist has performed a varied repertoire with prestigious conductors including Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Marin Alsop, Zubin Mehta and Manfred Honeck. She performed Heinz Holliger’s work Dämmerlicht in Sao Paulo in June 2022, and his composition Puneigä in Geneva in September 2022. In the fall of 2022, she returned to Japan for the first time since the pandemic (Strauss ‘Vier letzte Lieder’ with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra).
Lieder recitals and chamber music have always been an integral part of her activity, including participations in La Schubertiade in Vilabertran and in the Boulez Hall in Berlin, as well as a CD recording of Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’ together with Martin Helmchen.
Many of Juliane Banse’s recordings have been awarded, and two of them received an Echo Klassik: Braunfels’ Jeanne d’Arc with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck (nominated for the world premiere recording of the year) and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich and David Zinman. In 2017 her CD Unanswered Love, together with the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern under the direction of Christoph Poppen, was released to great acclaim by the media, with works by Reimann, Rihm and Henze, some of them recorded for the first time and dedicated to her. Her CD Im Arm der Liebe with the Munich Radio Orchestra includes works by Braunfels, Korngold, Marx and Pfitzner. She also received great praise for her recording of Hindemith’s Marienleben together with pianist Martin Helmchen, a work that the artist particularly enjoys singing. In addition, several of her performances from last season, Heinz Holliger’s Puneigae and G. Kurtág’s Messages of the late R.V Troussova, as well as Henze’s Nachtstücke und Arien, are scheduled for release on CD.