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The German mezzo-soprano, Ulrike Schneider, studied singing Cologne, Basel and Berlin, followed by master-classes and private lessons with Margreet Honig and Dunja Vejsovic, Hanne-Lore Kuhse, Ingrid Bjoner, Jan-Hendrik Rootering and Astrid Varnay.
After two years in the opera studio of the Bayerischen Staatsoper, where she performed smaller roles, Ulrike Schneider went in 1996 to Lucerne for her first engagement, where she made her debut in the most important roles of the lyrical mezzo-soprano. In 1999 she made her debut at the Hamburgischen Staatsope as Muse/Niklas in the premiere of Hoffmanns Erzählungen and at the Teatro Massimo as the second lady in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. From 2000 to 2005 she was a member of the ensemble at the Opernhauses Halle, where she grew into more dramatic roles. Here she sang, among others, Evanco, Tirinto and Eduige in George Frideric Handel's operas Rodrigo, Imeneo and Rodelinda, Dorabella in W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte, Hänsel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Maddalena in Sergei Prokofiev's opera of the same name, Mary in Fliegenden Holländer, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, Marina in Boris Godunov and in Bad Lauchstädt Cherubino in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Sesto in W.A. Mozart's La clemenza di Tito as well as Floßhilde, then also Fricka in Rheingold, as well as Venus in Tannhäuser, Princess Eboli and Adalgisa in Norma. In concerts with the Staatskapelle Halle she was heard in an orchestral version with songs by Alma Mahler-Werfel under Roger Epple in Halle (Saale), in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 and as Emilia in Rossini's Otello, as well as with concert arias by W.A. Mozart and orchestral songs by Gustav Mahlerr.
Ulrike Schneider has been a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater Kassel since the 2011 season, where she was able to deepen and significantly expand her diverse repertoire, especially with the roles of Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah, Judit in Béla Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Nurse in R. Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten. In 2016-2017 season, she sang the roles of Federica die Ostheim and Klytaemnestra in Kassel and Essen respectively. In Staatstheater Kassel she was honored by the audience with the Volksbühne Prize in 2014 and the Irma Jansa Prize in 2017.
Ulrike Schneider has given concerts throughout Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, the Vatican, Belgium and Ireland, including the Tonhalle Zürich, radio stations in Spain and the Irish National Hall in Dublin. Marek Janowski, Jun Märkl, Ingo Metzmacher, Fabio Luisi, Thomas Dausgaard, Howard Arman, Marcus Creed, Laurence Cummings, Michael Schneider and Tomas Hanus are among the conductors she works with. Regular radio recordings, e.g. with the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig under Howard Arman at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, as well as concerts in the Berliner Philharmonie under Marek Janowski round off her artistic profile.
In the critics' survey of the specialist journal Opernwelt, Ulrike Schneider received three nominations for Singer of the Year in 2002 for Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, and in 2003 she was nominated for Tirinto in Imeneo. In 2015, she was the title heroine of the enthusiastically received production of George Frideric Handel's Agrippina at the Göttinger Händelfestspielen, which won the Helpman Award. |
