ALT | MEZZOSOPRAN

Biographie | English

The contralto Saskia Klumpp was born in Freudenstadt, Germany. In addition to taking a degree in German and English (literature and linguistics) at Tübingen University, she studied singing with Renate Brosch in Stuttgart and Prof. Cläre Holsten in Berlin. Her vocal training was complemented by masterclasses with Anna Reynolds and Julia Hamari, and by further studies with Hans Peter Blochwitz.


As a much sought-after concert singer whose repertoire spans the baroque to the contemporary, she is regularly invited to appear in the music centres of Europe and around the world. Among them are: the philharmonic halls of Berlin; Essen; Lerida, Spain; Krakow, Poland; Capetown and Johannesburg, South Africa ; the Laeisz-Halle, Hamburg; the Herkulessaal, Munich; the Thomaskirche, Leipzig; the Liederhalle, Stuttgart; San Marco, Milan and the Royal Festival Hall, London.


Amongst the many festivals at which she has been invited to perform are: the Thüringer Bachwochen, the Bachwoche Greifswald, the Musikfestspiele Potsdam, the Bydgosky Muzycny Festiwal, the Festival de Musique de Strasbourg, and Musica Città, Fidenza.


Under the baton of Helmuth Rilling she sang Bach’s Christmas Oratorio for members and guests of the German Parliament in Berlin’s Cathedral. She was the first female European singer in decades who in 1999 was welcome to sing in Teheran, Iran, after receiving an invitation by The Ministery of Culture of Iran and the German Embassy. It was Wolfgang Gönnenwein who asked her to sing the contralto part in Mozart’s Requiem in the first tour of a German Festival Ensemble to South Africa.


She has appeared with Wofgang Gönnenwein on many occasions. Amongst others he engaged her to appear at the Festival de Musique de Strasbourg and the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele as “Prinz Orlofsky” in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus together with Claus Maria Brandauer. Her working relationship with Christian Thielemann started at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sang the rôle of “The Young Doctor” in Pfitzner’s Palestrina, and under whose musical direction she did not only sing in concert but also covered “Mary” in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer in Tokyo – a rôle for which she was also highly praised at the opera house of Neustrelitz. Her love for the German repertoire took her to the National Theatre Cottbus, where she appeared as “Schwerteite” in  Wagner’s Die Walküre, and to the National Theatre Oldenburg, where she gave her debut as Herodias in Strauss’s Salome. On opera stage she also sang under the baton of conductors like Donald Runnicles (Lohengrin), Sebastian Lang-Lessing (Martha), Renato Palumbo (Manon Lescaut) or Stefano Ranzani and Niksa Bareza (Suor Angelica).


Saskia Klumpp is much sought-after as a singer of contemporary music. In 2006 she sang Penderecki’s Credo in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall and little later appeared in the Berlin premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Miserere at the same place. In 2007 she sang the German premiere of Karl Jenkin’s The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in the Konzerthaus Berlin in the presence of the composer and left a strong impression as the “Mummy” in Aribert Reimann’s Gespenstersonate at the Hamburgische Staatsoper in 2008. After having premiered Jochen A. Modeß’s Passio Mundi and Croy Cantate, she also sang the first performance of his Missa a septentrionibus in 2012, which was broadcasted by NDR. In 2013 both the world premiere of Derek Healey’s Morgensternlieder op. 129 and the performance of two song-cycles by Jörg Riedlbauer were a great success.


Radio broadcasts and recordings include: Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht (Symphonic Orchestra, Berlin / Motettenchor, Munic); Dvorák’s Requiem und Stabat Mater (Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra); Bach’s Kantata BWV 144 (for Deutschlandradio) ; Zelter’s  König in Thule (for Deutschlandradio Kultur) and the avant-garde compositions Purgatorio and Paradiso by Tangerine Dream.


TV-broadcastings include: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for NDR and extracts from Carmen for TV Shanghai (Yogyan Hu)

Biography


The contralto Saskia Klumpp was born in Freudenstadt, Germany. In addition to taking a degree in German and English (literature and linguistics) at Tübingen University, she studied singing with Renate Brosch in Stuttgart and Prof. Cläre Holsten in Berlin. Her vocal training was complemented by masterclasses with Anna Reynolds and Julia Hamari, and by further studies with Hans Peter Blochwitz.


As a much sought-after concert singer whose repertoire spans the baroque to the contemporary, she is regularly invited to appear in the music centres of Europe and around the world. Among them are: the philharmonic halls of Berlin; Essen; Lerida, Spain; Krakow, Poland; Capetown and Johannesburg, South Africa ; the Laeisz-Halle, Hamburg; the Herkulessaal, Munich; the Thomaskirche, Leipzig; the Liederhalle, Stuttgart; San Marco, Milan and the Royal Festival Hall, London.


Amongst the many festivals at which she has been invited to perform are: the Thüringer Bachwochen, the Bachwoche Greifswald, the Musikfestspiele Potsdam, the Bydgosky Muzycny Festiwal, the Festival de Musique de Strasbourg, and Musica Città, Fidenza.


Under the baton of Helmuth Rilling she sang Bach’s Christmas Oratorio for members and guests of the German Parliament in Berlin’s Cathedral. She was the first female European singer in decades who in 1999 was welcome to sing in Teheran, Iran, after receiving an invitation by The Ministery of Culture of Iran and the German Embassy. It was Wolfgang Gönnenwein who asked her to sing the contralto part in Mozart’s Requiem in the first tour of a German Festival Ensemble to South Africa.


She has appeared with Wofgang Gönnenwein on many occasions. Amongst others he engaged her to appear at the Festival de Musique de Strasbourg and the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele as “Prinz Orlofsky” in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus together with Claus Maria Brandauer. Her working relationship with Christian Thielemann started at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sang the rôle of “The Young Doctor” in Pfitzner’s Palestrina, and under whose musical direction she did not only sing in concert but also covered “Mary” in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer in Tokyo – a rôle for which she was also highly praised at the opera house of Neustrelitz. Her love for the German repertoire took her to the National Theatre Cottbus, where she appeared as “Schwerteite” in  Wagner’s Die Walküre, and to the National Theatre Oldenburg, where she gave her debut as Herodias in Strauss’s Salome. On opera stage she also sang under the baton of conductors like Donald Runnicles (Lohengrin), Sebastian Lang-Lessing (Martha), Renato Palumbo (Manon Lescaut) or Stefano Ranzani and Niksa Bareza (Suor Angelica).


Saskia Klumpp is much sought-after as a singer of contemporary music. In 2006 she sang Penderecki’s Credo in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall and little later appeared in the Berlin premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Miserere at the same place. In 2007 she sang the German premiere of Karl Jenkin’s The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in the Konzerthaus Berlin in the presence of the composer and left a strong impression as the “Mummy” in Aribert Reimann’s Gespenstersonate at the Hamburgische Staatsoper in 2008. After having premiered Jochen A. Modeß’s Passio Mundi and Croy Cantate, she also sang the first performance of his Missa a septentrionibus in 2012, which was broadcasted by NDR. In 2013 both the world premiere of Derek Healey’s Morgensternlieder op. 129 and the performance of two song-cycles by Jörg Riedlbauer were a great success.


Radio broadcasts and recordings include: Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht (Symphonic Orchestra, Berlin / Motettenchor, Munic); Dvorák’s Requiem und Stabat Mater (Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra); Bach’s Kantata BWV 144 (for Deutschlandradio) ; Zelter’s  König in Thule (for Deutschlandradio Kultur) and the avant-garde compositions Purgatorio and Paradiso by Tangerine Dream.


TV-broadcastings include: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for NDR and extracts from Carmen for TV Shanghai (Yogyan Hu)

© 2024 by Saskia Klumpp