Austrian mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager enjoys an international career dividing her time between recitals and opera in Europe, North America and the Far East. She is internationally recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of Richard Strauss and Mozart. As a celebrated recitalist and concert performer her repertoire ranges from Bach, Berlioz, Brahms, Debussy, Dvorak, Korngold, Mahler, Mendelssohn and Ravel to Rossini, Schubert, Schumann, Weill and Wolf.
In 2007 the Austrian government awarded Angelika the title of Kammersängerin for her outstanding contributions to the Vienna State Opera. In 2009 she became an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2013 she won the BBC Music Magazine Award for her recording of Liszt and received the prestigious European Cultural Award for her contributions to classical music on stage and as a teacher keeping the fascination of classical music alive for the younger generation.
Recent engagements have included Weill Seven Deadly Sins for Graz Oper, her debut performance of Marcellina, Le nozze di Figaro (Wiener Staatsoper), Mrs Muskat in Johanna Doderer’s Liliom (Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Munich), Clairon Capriccio and Princess Fürstin Egmont (Theater an der Wien). On the concert platform, Angelika performed Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at the Philharmonie am Gasteig and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg with the Bach Collegium München and Hansjörg Albrecht, a concert tour to the Trancoso Festival in Brazil with the Camerata Bern, recitals for Oxford Lieder and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as Winterreise with Julius Drake at the Wiener Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich and Concertgebouw. Further ahead, Angelika returns to Opernhaus Zürich alongside a host of European recital engagements.
Recordings include an album of Liszt songs accompanied by Julius Drake (Hyperion), a Lieder CD (Preiser Records) and ‘Seligkeit’ featuring Schubert, Mahler and Brahms with the Philharmonia Schrammeln (Deutsche Grammophon). In 2010 she released the ECHO Award winning recording of Schumann Lieder (Sony), Mahler Lieder (Quinton Records) for the composer’s 150th birthday, a Brahms album (Hyperion Records) and a CD of Lieder by Joseph Marx (cpo). In addition, she released part of a two volume CD of Volkslieder (Sony). Her discography further includes Lieder by Hugo Wolf (Sony), an Operetta album recorded with Simon Keenlyside (Sony), an album of Christmas carols, Handel Arias, a duet lieder album ‘First Encounter’ with Barbara Bonney, ‘Women’s Lives and Loves’ featuring lieder by Schumann and Loewe with Dame Felicity Lott (Hyperion), Le nozze di Figaro with René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi) as well as the Sony releases of Bach Arias. Angelika also released ‘When night falls’: a collection of classical and popular lullabies and her highly acclaimed debut album of Lieder by Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler and Erich Korngold.
DVD releases include Sesto in the highly-acclaimed Glyndebourne production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Opus Arte), Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro under René Jacobs (Bel Air), Octavian Der Rosenkavalier from the Salzburg Festival under Semyon Bychkov (TDK) and Sophie in the Royal Opera House’s release of Sophie’s Choice. She has won three ECHO KLASSIK awards as well as a GRAMMY Award.
Born in Salzburg, Angelika enrolled at the Vienna Music Academy in 1984 where she studied voice with Professor Gerhard Kahry and the late Viennese baritone Walter Berry. Today she teaches international master classes all over the world. She makes her home in Vienna.