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The German soprano, Majoca Erdmann, started taking violin lessons at the age of 6, while also singing in the children’s choir of the Hamburger Staatsoper and taking up private singing lessons. She studied singing with Hans Sotin at the Cologne College of Music, where she also studied violin. In 2002, the soprano won the first prize at the German Federal Competition (category voice), as well as the Special Prize for Contemporary Music. In August 2005, she was awarded the NDR Music Prize in the framework of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, as well as the Luitpold Prize during the Bad Kissinger Summer.
Praised by critics and loved by audiences for her beauty of tone and impeccable artistry, Mojca Erdmann is known for her versatility in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music. The BBC Music Magazine praised her as an “interpreter of major gifts”.
Mojca Erdmann made her debut at Opera Amsterdam as Blondchen in W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, conducted by Constantinos Carydis. Simon Rattle invited her to sing Waldvogel in his new production of Wagner’s Siegfried in Aix (2008) and at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2009. In the same year she debuted as Sophie in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier in a new production by Stefan Herheim at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, a role she also sang for the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich. She appeared in a new production of Weber’s Der Freischütz, another debut, at Theater an der Wien and made her debut as Zerlina in an all-star gala performance of W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni in Baden-Baden, where she returned as Despina in a new production of W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte in 2012. Zerlina was also the vehicle for her debut with Teatro Real Madrid in 2013. She has performed Pamina in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Cologne Opera and Marzelline in L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio with Nice Opera.
In 2011, Majoca Erdmann her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Zerlina in a new production of W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni and as Waldvogel in Siegfried. The latter production was released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon in September 2012. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera the following season for performances as Susanna in W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. In 2012, she made her highly acclaimed debut as the titular character in Alban Berg's Lulu, in a new production led by Andrea Breth and conducted by Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper Berlin. After her Salzburg Festival debut in 2006 as W.A. Mozart's Zaide under Ivor Bolton, she was invited to return to the festival in 2007 and 2009 to sing Zelmira in Haydn’s Armida, (again, under the direction of Ivor Bolton in a production by Christof Loy). In 2013, she returned to the festival to perform a series of world premieres in concert with the Scharoun Ensemble. In 2014, she starred as Sophie in the festival’s new production of Der Rosenkavalier, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and made her operatic debut at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala as Marzelline in a new production of L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, to open the theatre’s season. She reunited with Daniel Barenboim later in the season for performances of Alban Berg's Lulu at the Berlin Staatsoper and for a concert featuring music by Pierre Boulez.
Mojca Erdmann regularly appears in concert and recital in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Spain, France Switzerland, South Korea and Japan, where she was last heard in 2014 in performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana and Catulli Carmina in Tokyo and on a multi-city recital tour with harpist Xavier de Maistre. She is a frequent guest at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonie, the Alte Oper Frankfurt where she was Artist in Residence in 2012-2013, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. She has a vast concert repertoire and is frequently working with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ivor Bolton, Manfred Honeck, Kent Nagano, Fabio Luisi and Daniel Harding. She appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, Wiener Symphoniker, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The soprano made her debut at the Lucerne Festival with the Bamberger Symphoniker under Jonathan Nott, performing Ligeti’s Requiem. Nikolaus Harnoncourt invited her to the Vienna Musikverein for Robert Schumann's Paradies und die Peri, to the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam for Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, and to the Berliner Philharmoniker for Haydn's Orlando Paladino. In 2009 she appeared as Sorge/Soprano 1 in Robert Schumann's Scenes from Goethe’s Faust with the Stockholm Radio Symphony under Daniel Harding, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, and with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Pinchas Steinberg in what marked her debut at La Scala. In 2011 she joined the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on their tour to Asia and for concerts in Dortmund and Leipzig, performing Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 4.
An unusually versatile performer, Mojca Erdmann is much sought after for her interpretation of contemporary music: She made her debut with the Berlin Staatsoper in the world premiere of Takemitsu - My Way of Life, conducted by Kent Nagano. In 2009 she performed the title role in Wolfgang Rihm’s monodrama Proserpina and the following year Rihm entrusted her with the lead soprano role in his new opera Dionysos, which saw its world premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 2010 under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher, and was premiered in Germany at the Berlin Staatsoper in 2012. Also in 2012, she premiered Rodion Shchedrin's Cleopatra and the Snake at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, conducted by Valery Gergiev.
Mojca Erdmann kicks off the 2015-2016 season with a concert tour together with the Bach Collegium Japan (Director: Masaaki Suzuki) with concerts in Tokyo, Nagoya and Kobe. The program will also be recorded for a CD release. On the concert stage, the sought-after lied singer can be heard twice at the Schubertiade Festival in Hohenems and Schwarzenberg, sings a concert in Istanbul together with the Kuss Quartett as well as a recital with the Mozart Fest Würzburg. She sings the soprano part in W.A. Mozart's Requiem with the Münchener Kammerorchester under the baton of Zubin Mehta and returns to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, where she performs a piece by Wolfgang Rihm together with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart. In spring 2016, she returns to Japan for recitals with Malcolm Martineau in Tokyo. On the operatic stage, she sings in the world premiere of Miroslva Srnka’s new opera South Pole alongside Thomas Hampson and Rolando Villazón at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich.
Mojca Erdmann can be heard on many recordings, including an acclaimed version of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 4 with the Bamberger Symphoniker under Jonathan Nott released by Tudor and in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, released by Sony. In 2011, RCA released a recording of Wolf´s Italian Songbook which featured Mojca Erdmann, Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber. In 2009, the soprano signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon, with the first solo recording, "Mozart´s Garden", featuring arias by W.A. Mozart and his contemporaries, having been released in 2011. She can be heard as Zerlina and Despina respectively on Deutsche Grammophon’s recently released complete recordings of Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte, both conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. |
