Petra Lang

Born in Frankfurt, Mezzo Soprano Petra Lang studied voice at the "Akademie für Tonkunst" in Darmstadt and in Mainz after graduating as a violinist. Her voice teacher today is Ingrid Bjoner. Upon attending the Opernstudio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Petra Lang started her career in Dortmund and Braunschweig where she sang Octavian (Rosenkavallier), Marie (Wozzeck), Fricka (Das Rheingold und Die Walküre), Waltraute (Götterdämmerung), Judith (Bluebeard's Castle) and Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde).

In 1997, Petra Lang had a tremendous success as Brangäne in New York performing with the Opera Orchestra of New York under the baton of Eve Queler. Also in the role of Brangäne she made her debuts with Armin Jordan conducting in Geneva, with Silvio Varviso in Antwerp, Semyon Bychkov in Torino and Dresden, with Bernard Haitink in London, with Simon Rattle in Amsterdam, with Myun Whun Chung in Paris, with Christian Thielemann in Vienna and at the Bayreuth Festival.

Highlights of Petra Lang's career so far include Kundry (Parsifal) with Simon Rattle in London, with Andrew Davis in Dresden, with Armin Jordan in Geneva, with Simone Young in Hamburg, with M. Janowski in Monte Carlo and with Ulf Schirmer in Leipzig, Cassandra in Berlioz’ Les Troyens with Colin Davis in London and with Donald Runnicles at the Edinburgh Festival, Judith in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle with Wolfgang Sawallisch in Philadelphia and New York, with Bernard Haitink in Brussels and London, and with Ivan Fischer in Modena, Ferrara and at the Royal Opera House London, Ortrud with Donald Runnicles at the Edinburgh Festival as well as Sieglinde in Die Walküre with Jeffrey Tate in Cologne, Venice and Naples, in Berlin and Manchester, with Ivan Fischer in Brussels, Budapest, London and with Gerd Albrecht in Tokyo.

2002 Petra Lang won two Grammy Awards for her interpretation of Cassandra as part of the London Symphony's live recording of Berlioz' Les Troyens conducted by Sir Colin Davis. The album won the categories Best Classical and Best Opera Recording of the Year. In May 2002, the recording won in addition two of the highly respected BRIT Awards in London making it one of the best selling recordings of the year as well as the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik” and the “Orphée d'or de l'Academie du disque lyrique”.

Petra Lang is also a very successful concert singer. She has performed with some of the most prestigious orchestras in Europe and the US such as the Philadelphia, Dallas and Chicago Symphony, the Munich, Berlin, Vienna, London and Israel Philharmonic and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. She made a successful concert tour in Japan 2007. Petra Lang's versatile concert repertory includes symphonies and orchestra lieder by Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder as well as Gurrelieder by Schönberg,

Petra Lang has worked with such esteemed conductors as Gerd Albrecht, Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Myung Whun Chung, Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, Ivan Fischer, Bernard Haitink, Armin Jordan, Fabio Luisi, Marek Janowski, Simone Young, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Simon Rattle, Jeffrey Tate, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser Möst.

Future engagements include amongst others:
Lohengrin (Ortrud) at the Bayreuth Festival 2011. In 2012 Rusalka at Covent Garden, Ortrud (Lohengrin) in a new production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, same part in San Francisco and Parsifal (Kundry) in Amsterdam. In 2013 Die Walküre (Sieglinde) and Parsifal (Kundry) in Munich. Amongst the opera performances numerous concerts.
Starting 2013/14 she will do her first ‘Brünnhilde’s in the Ring.

Engagements in Bayreuth