Katharina Bierweiler 

Katharina Bierweiler (*2004) is a young mezzo-soprano who, since October 2024, has been awarded fellowships by both the Heidelberger Frühling – Liedakademie 2024/25 and the Deutschlandstipendium 2024/25.

 

Her musical training began with the renowned Cantus Juvenum Children’s Choir in Karlsruhe, where she participated in various opera projects at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. At the age of 17, Katharina continued her training as a young student at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, where she has been pursuing her Bachelor's degree in Opera Singing since April 2023, under the guidance of Prof. Christiane Libor and Stephan Klemm.

 

Katharina has already garnered numerous awards and achievements: In 2024, she won the 3rd Förderpreis of the Walter Kaminsky Foundation at the 53rd Bundeswettbewerb Gesang in Berlin and was honoured with the Förderpreis of the Walter und Charlotte Hamel Foundation in 2022. In 2020, she was nominated as "Up-and-Coming Singer of the Year" in the critics' choice of Opernwelt magazine. Katharina has been awarded first place multiple times at the German national competition "Jugend musiziert" and has received many special prizes, including the "Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben", the Johann Friedrich Reichardt Prize, and a scholarship from the Rheinsberg Academy for Young Musical Theatre and in October 2023, she was a soloist on a multi-venue tour of China.

 

Katharina has performed in numerous staged productions: She appeared as Flora in "The Turn of the Screw"/Britten at the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels (2021 and 2024) and at Theatre Freiburg (2019/21), and as Yniold in "Pelléas et Mélisande"/Debussy at both Theatre Freiburg (2019) and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe (2020). She also performed as Aricia in "Trois Opéras-Minute"/Milhaud at the Rheinsberg Academy for Young Musical Theatre, among other roles. The production of "The Turn of the Screw "at Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie/De Munt in 2021 was live-streamed by MEZZO and recorded for CD by Alpha Classics. In 2022, Katharina performed the role of the Slave in a new production of "Salome"/Strauss at the Grande Théâtre de Provence, and in August 2024, she performed as the 2. Knabe in Mozart’s "Die Zauberflöte" at the International Opera Festival at Saarpolygon. At the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, she has performed as the Sandman in Humperdinck's "Hänsel und Gretel", the mezzo-soprano roles in the contemporary children's opera "Wunderland" by Anno Schreier, La Suora Zelatrice in Puccini’s "Suor Angelica", and Suor Pazienza in Giordano’s "Mese Mariano".

 

Katharina has worked with conductors such as Ingo Metzmacher, Ben Glassberg, Marcus Bosch, Gerhard Markson, and Fabrice Bollon, and has collaborated with directors including Andrea Breth, Stefano Poda, Peter Carp, and Dominique Mentha. A particularly formative influence on her artistic development has been her work with director Andrea Breth, under whose direction she performed in productions of The Turn of the Screw and Salome.

 

Dedicated to continuous improvement, Katharina regularly participates in masterclasses with distinguished artists including KS Brigitte Fassbender, Thomas Hampson, Ulrich Eisenlohr, Stefanie Irányi, Dr. Javier Arrebola, and Hartmut Höll.

 

For three consecutive years, she has been an honoured scholarship holder of the Riemschneider Foundation.