Following her operatic debut at the age of twenty as Pamina in Harry Kupfer’s production of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) at the Komische Oper Berlin and her acclaimed performance of Schneewittchen at the world premiere of this opera by Heinz Holliger in Zurich she once more could prove her artistic versatility in numerous international opera productions. At the Bayerische Staatsoper where she is a regular guest performer, she shone as Ilia in Idomeneo conducted by Kent Nagano in the reopened Cuvilliés-Theatre. Over recent seasons, Juliane Banse has extended her opera repertoire with major parts such as the Figaro Gräfin (debut performance at the Salzburg Festival), Eva (Meistersinger), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Genoveva, Tatjana (Eugen Onegin), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Arabella, Grete (Der ferne Klang), Tochter (Cardillac) and Agathe (Der Freischütz). At Dresden’s “Night at the Opera” on 4th September 2010, the film Hunter’s Bride/Der Freischütz with Juliane Banse as Agathe and the London Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding had its world premiere.
In 2011/12 Juliane Banse will repeatedly guest perform at the Vienna State Opera: She sings Vitellia in Jürgen Flimm’s new
production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito under Louis Langrée as well as the Tochter in the revival of Hindemith’s Cardillac under Franz Welser-Möst. Earlier in that season she will perform Eva in a new production of Wagner’s Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Zurich under the baton of Daniele Gatti. Born in the south of Germany, the soprano spent her childhood in Zurich, Switzerland, and began playing the violin at the age of five. Later she trained as a ballerina at the Opernhaus Zurich. She began singing at the age of 15, taking singing lessons initially with Paul Steiner, and later with Ruth Rohner at the Opernhaus Zurich. After completing her school education she continued her studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and also Daphne Evangelatos in Munich.
Juliane Banse enjoys success in other fields apart from opera singing: in 1994 she made her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, where her rendition of Berg's Altenberg Lieder was recorded on CD. This was followed by a recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Cleveland Orchestra under Pierre Boulez. Some of her latest international concert engagements included concert versions of Humperdinck’s Königskinder with Ingo Metzmacher in Berlin (released on CD at Crystal classics), Mahler’s 4th Symphony in Boston and Mendelssohn’s Elias with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s L’infedelta delusa with Concentus Musicus under Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Vienna, Bruckner’s Mass in fminor with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert Blomstedt as well as Mendelssohn’s Elias at the side of Bryn Terfel at Verbier Festival. She has worked with numerous other famous conductors including André Previn, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons and Helmuth Rilling.
In the present season Juliane Banse has been invited to sing Schumann’s Faust-Szenen with the Hamburger Symphoniker
under Jeffrey Tate, Mozart’s Mass in c-minor with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst in Vienna, Mahler’s 4th Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic under Ivan Fischer, and to Lucerne Festival to sing in Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Munich Radio Orchestra under Claudio Abbado. The renowned lied singer has planned numerous recitals for the season of 2011/12: With Wolfram Rieger, respectively Martin Helmchen, amongst others, in Cologne, Paris, Munich, at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg and in London’s Wigmore Hall. In the summer of 2012 Juliane Banse will be member of the jury of the renowned ARD Musikwettbewerb in Munich.
The numerous CD recordings made by the artist include her Mozart Debussy CD together with András Schiff (ECM) and also
her multi award-winning recording of selected vocal works by Charles Koechlin with the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra
under Heinz Holliger (hänssler). To celebrate the 80th birthday of György Kurtág, ECM Records released a new recording of
Kafka Fragments for soprano and violin (András Keller), recorded in association with the composer, which has also received
several international awards (the Japanese Modern Music Prize, the Midem Classical Award 2007 and the Edizon Prize for the best recording of contemporary music). Two recordings of Juliane Banse were awarded the prestigious ECHO Klassik 2011: Braunfels’ Jeanne D’Arc with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (worldwide first recording of the year) and Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich (symphonic recording of the year /19th century).
Latest recordings of Juliane Banse include operatic arias called Per Amore with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern (hänssler) and the lied recording Tief in der Nacht with Aleksandar Madzar (EMI).
