Christiane Iven

Hamburg native Christiane Iven studied in her native city with Judith Beckmann and supplemented her training at recital interpretation classes with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. She was a prize winner at the German Music Competition and several international competitions. At the Hanover State Opera she made a very successful switch to the young dramatic soprano repertoire with such roles as the Countess (?Le nozze di Figaro?), the Marschallin (?Der Rosenkavalier?) and Marie in Berg?s ?Wozzeck?, after having begun her singing career as a mazzo-soprano at the Bremen Theatre and the Nationaltheater in Mannheim. For her outstanding artistic achievements she was awarded the Lower Saxony State Prize. At the Stuttgart State Opera, where Christiane Iven has been on the solo roster and with which she will remain associated in the coming years, she was heard this season as Elsa in ?Lohengrin? and ? on one evening ? in Schönberg?s ?Erwartung? and as Judith in Bartók?s ?A Kékszakállu herceg vára? (?Duke Bluebeard?s Castle?). In addition she sang in revivals of ?Les Troyens? and ?Der Freischütz?. She will sing her first Sieglinde in Wagner?s ?Die Walk+üre? at the Opera House in Zurich, and she will make her operatic début in Rome as the Marschallin. Christiane Iven has also been outstandingly successful as a concert and recital artist. She has sung with such renowned orchestras and conductors as The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Bamberg Symphony, the NDR and SWR Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Fabio Luisi, the Orchestra della Scala under Riccardo Chailly and has been a guest artist at several major music festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival Weeks and the Schwetzingen Festival.