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Born: June 24, 1958 - Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Died: September 11, 2020 - Dresden, Saxony, Germany |
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The German mezzo-soprano/contralto and opera director, Annette Jahns, was born to a family of singers: both her father Wilfried Jahns and her mother Ilse Ludwig are opera singers. Annette studied at at the Musikhochschule Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden from 1975 to 1981. From 1982 to 1986 she had further training at the opera studio at the State Opera House Dresden, where her Master`s study was under Judith Beckmann; Ute Niss and Theo Adam.
From 1986 to 1999, Annette Jahns, was a member of the Soloists Ensemble of the Saxon State Opera Dresden ("Semperoper"). since this time she has worked as a freelance singer and director. From 1995 she has taught at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music in Dresden. She has made guest appearances as an opera, concert and soloist singer in Germany, throughout Europe and to Japan. Since 2000 she has been a Member of the Saxon Academy of Arts. She sang at the Bayreuth Festival in 2002, made her debut at the Salzburg Faestival in 2002, her debut at Milan’s La Scala in 2003, and in 2005 her debut at Teatre de Chatelet Paris in The Ring of the Nibelungen from Bob Wilson under Christoph Eschenbach. She has been promoted by conductors like Giuseppe Sinopoli and others and directors as Joachim Herz and Peter Konwitschny. She has been broadcast on the radio and has produced a number of CD’s.
In 1987 Annette Jahns was awarded the "Critics Prize" in Berlin for her performance as Bettina in the première of the opera of the same name written by F. Schenker. In 1995 she was awarded the Art Prize of the Saxon Capital City of Dresden. In 1998 she was given a Richard Wagner scholarship.
Since 1998 marked the beginning of her own activity as a director. In 2003, the first big opera staging Madama Butterfly at Semperoper Dresden since then regularly stagings.
Annette Jahns lived in Dresden and had 2 children. In 2009, she was elected Senatorin in the Saxon cultural senate. |
