Soprano Juliane Banse, who was born in southern Germany and grew up in Zurich, studied with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich. At the age of twenty shemade her debut as Pamina Pamina at the Komische Oper in Berlin; there followed engagements at Glyndebourne, Vienna and Bavarian State Opera, and Zurich Opera, where she triumphed in the world premiere of Holliger’s Schneewittchen in 1998. While originally most at home with light lyric soprano roles, her repertoire today also encompasses such roles as the Countess in Figaro, which she has performed at the Salzburg Festival, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Schumann’s Genoveva, Eva in Die Meistersinger, and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. Juliane Banse has collaborated with such conductors as Abbado, Boulez, Chailly, Haitink, Harnoncourt, and Welser-Möst. She has also built a reputation as an interpreter of lieder, which she has recorded on numerous prize-winning CDs. With Maurizio Pollini, she has performed Schubert lieder in New York and Tokyo.