The German contralto, Ivonne [Yvonne] Fuchs, was born and grew near Magdeburg, in the eastern part of Germany. No one in her family knew anything about music - so she found the way to the music entirely by herelf. When she was 14 she left her home and moved to a boarding school specialized on music and choir. From 1993 to 1994 she studied church music at the Martin Luther University in Halle/Wittenberg. She then moved to Weimar in order to study music teaching at the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt" (1994-1999). In 1999 she went to the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold to study classical singing (1999-2003, main teacher Heiner Eckels). After graduating in 2005, she moved to Stockholm to continue her education at the Royal College of Music (Kungliga Musikhögskolan, 2005-2006, main teacher Kerstin Wahlström-Olsson). She completed her studies at the University College of Opera in Stockholm, where she will graduate in 2010 (main teachers Erik Saedén and, since 2009, Karl-Magnus Fredriksson). She also attended master-classes with Dorothy Irving, Håkan Hagegård, Olle Persson, Peter Berne and Nicolas Carthy. She is currently studying with Christa Ludwig.
In the summer of 2009 Ivonne Fuchs made her opera-debut with the main-role of G.F. Handel's Ariodante at Drottningholms Slottsteater in Stockholm. She has also sang Baba the Turk in scenes from The Rake’s Progress in Stockholm and Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Detmold. Her operatic repertoire includes roles such as George Frideric Handel's Dejaneira in Hercules, Polinesso in Ariodante, Amastre in Serse, Disinganno in Il trionfo del Tempo, Gluck's Orphée, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Isabella, Angelina in Cenerentola, Rossini’s Tancredi, Dalila, Baba The Turk, Olga, and Fricka in Die Walküre.
On the concert platform Ivonne Fuchs has successfully collaborated with conductors like Philippe Herreweghe (Magnificat BWV 243 at the Herkules-Saal in Munich and in Zürich), Frans Brüggen (Johannes-Passion BWV 245 at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam), Helmuth Rilling (Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 at Stuttgart's Liederhalle), Tönu Kaljuste, Manfred Honeck (Sven-David Sandström's Ordet in Stockholm and Copenhagen), Stefan Parkman, Daniel Reuss, Peter Dijkstra, Sigiswald Kuijken, Gary Cooper and Hans-Christoph Rademann. She has sung W.A. Mozart's Requiem and L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Tokyo and made concert tours in Japan, America, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland.
Ivonne Fuchs is a dedicated Lieder singer, and won the first prize in the Ordet och tonen competition in 2006. In 2002 she was scholarship winner of the Richard Wagner-Gesellschaft, and in 2006 was the winner of the 2006 Swedish Scholarship "Lanseringen- word an tone" together with the pianist Anna Christensson. Since then they have toured through Sweden with a variety of recitals and perform in Swedish Chamber Music Festivals such as Båstad, Sandviken, Piteå and Musik vid Siljan.
Her future engagements include the role of Etten in Sven-David Sandström’s Nätverket with the University College of Opera and J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra and Peter Dijkstra. She has just made her first professional recording with Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, transcribed for Chamber Orchestra by Arnold Schoenberg. The CD will be released during 2010. |