Sarah Wegener

Wegener’s ability is undisputed. Her vocal placement is flawless: she has a full range of ambitious tonal shading, a superb timbre that remains smooth even at a high volume, and perfect legato. Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Sarah Wegener approaches every role with captivating intensity. She has enthralled listeners with the warmth and richness of her voice in performances of Strauss orchestral songs under Mariss Jansons and Vladimir Jurowski in Munich, London, and Hamburg, Strauss’ Four Last Songs under Daniel Harding, Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Kirill Petrenko, Vasily Petrenko, James Conlon, Eliahu Inbal, and Kent Nagano as well as in her War and Peace programme shaped around works by Handel and Purcell. Her “marvellously radiant voice, as powerful as it is rich in colour” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) distinguishes her as a lieder singer of the highest order, as illustrated on her highly praised CDs Into the Deepest Sea and Zueignung.

Her remarkable versatility has ensured long-standing collaborations with her musical partners, including conductors Kent Nagano, Emilio Pomàrico, Peter Rundel, Tõnu Kaljuste, Heinz Holliger, Sylvain Cambreling, and Frieder Bernius. Concerts and recitals have taken her to the Salzburg Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Festival de Lanaudière, Chigiana International Festival, and Händel Festival Halle, as well as to the Suntory Hall Tokyo, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tonhalle Zürich, Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Paris, Royal Albert Hall, and Royal Festival Hall London. She has sung leading roles at the Royal Opera House in London, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Festwochen, Theater Bonn, Staatstheater Saarbrücken, and Tongyeong Festival in South Korea.

Highly regarded as a performer of both classical and Romantic repertoire as well as of contemporary compositions, Sarah Wegener recently sang Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri (Jérémie Rhorer, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie), Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (Philippe Herreweghe, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Collegium Vocale Gent), Penderecki’s St Luke Passion (Orchestre symphonique de Montéal, Kent Nagano), Bernstein’s Kaddish (MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Dennis Russel Davies), as well as Schönberg’s Six Orchestral Songs in Saarbrücken. She has given the premiere of numerous works by Georg Friedrich Haas, including the opera Bluthaus. In 2021 she gave her debut as Freia in Wagner’s Rheingold in Cologne and Amsterdam.

In 2023/24 Sarah Wegener sings Sibelius with the Gewandhausorchester under Andris Nelsons, Heinz Holliger’s Dämmerlicht in Japan, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in Madrid and Granada. Among her highlights of the season are a recital in Siena with a programme dedicated to Wagner and his Italian contemporaries, and Strauss’ Four Last Songs in Taipei. She will also give her role debut as Sieglinde in Wagner’s Walküre in concert performances in Prague, Amsterdam, Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden, and Lucerne. 

Sarah Wegener’s discography includes recordings of Boesmans’ Trakl-Lieder, Korngold’s Die stumme Serenade, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, as well as works by György Kurtág, Elliott Carter, and by and with Heinz Holliger. At OPUS Klassik 2019 she was nominated as Singer of the Year for her performance of Jörg Widmann’s Labyrinth III, the solo part of which the composer wrote for her. Her second Lied CD with Götz Payer, with focus on Richard Strauss, was again on the list of nominations at the OPUS Klassik 2022. A recording of songs arranged by B.A. Zimmermann with the WDR Symphony Orchestra was recently released by WERGO and awarded a Choc de Classica, the Diapason d’OR, and the German Record Critics’ Prize. In September 2023 Hans Werner Henze’s oratorio The Raft of the Medusa with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra under Cornelius Meister will be released. 

Following her double bass studies, the British-German soprano studied singing with Prof. Jaeger-Böhm in Stuttgart and took part in masterclasses with Dame Gwyneth Jones and Renée Morloc. Sarah Wegener teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts from autumn 2024.

Season 2023/24

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