Britta Schwarz

A native of Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg, contralto Britta Schwarz, first studied voice with Christa Niko in Berlin and completed her training with Christian Elssner and Hartmut Zabel in Dresden. She then took up a four-year engagement with the Dresden Staatsoper Studio and came to the music world’s attention through several international awards, including the Schumann Competition in Zwickau and the Walther Grüner Lieder Competition in London. Concert singing and lieder are today the focus of artistic career. Schwarz has been invited to perform as soloist in concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, singing under the baton of such conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Philippe Herreweghe, Marek Janowski, Kent Nagano, András Schiff, Peter Schreier, and Bruno Weil. She is especially passionate about music of the Baroque and has collaborated with such specialist ensembles as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Musica Antiqua Köln, and the Academy for Ancient Music Berlin, finding particular inspiration in her work with such musicians as Reinhard Goebel, Gustav Leonhardt, Ludger Rémy, and Michael Schönheit. Together with the lutenist Stefan Maass, Schwarz appears in a duo that has performed many programs for solo voice and basso continuo. She also regularly devotes herself to the field of Romantic art song: for the millennium, she presented the twelve-part song cycle LIED ZWEITAUSEND in Dresden, which she has continued to take up in recent years. Schwarz leads the course in oratorio performance at the Carl Maria von Weber Music Academy in Dresden; since April 2010 she has also served as guest teacher for voice at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 29 March 2012 in Bach’s B minor Mass under András Schiff.

February 2014