|
The German mezzo-soprano, Karin Kunde, attracted attention at the age of 16 years due to the volume of her voice, which exceeded by far the expected of her age. In Berlin Professor Irmgard Hartmann-Dressler recognised her enormous potential and took her into her class at the Berliner Hochschule der Künste. Very soon it became clear that Karin Kunde would be a one of the great performers on the stage.
Karin Kunde's main focus was particularly on the delivery of expressive intensity. The assessment of experts was unanimous that in addition to her vocal quality, her stressed assets are also great breadth of expression and interpretation. Not least, therefore, she was invited several times to master-classes with renowned musicians such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Jean Cox, Aribert Reimann, Anna Reynolds, Christa Ludwig, and Norman Shetler. Already during her studies she was a winner of several national and international singing competitions (such as VDMK in Berlin).
Karin Kunde's first engagement was at the Berliner Kammeroper, where she made her operatic debut with Benjamin Britten's opera The turn of the screw with great success. Her voice had now become a dramatic soprano, and she continued her career straightforward to an engagement in Stralsund, where the appeared in many roles: Among them: Senta (Holländer), Eva (Meistersinger), Amelia (Maskenball), Margarete (Faust), etc. She then celebrated major successes including on the stages in Münster, Görlitz, Greifswald, Oldenburg, Bremen and Berlin (Deutsche Oper). Among her roles as dramatic soprano are also Hexe and Mutter (Hänsel und Gretel) and Jeanne (Verlobung in San Domingo).
Karin Kunde has made herself a name also as an oratorio performer both at home and abroad. She sang with the RIAS-Kammerchor, the Berliner Oratorienchor and many similar choirs in the Berliner Philharmonie, the Stuttgarter Liederhalle, the Hamburger Musikhalle, and the Cathedrale di St. Antonio in Padua. Even in Japan, France, Belgium, the UK and the Czech Republic, she has appeared with great success.
A new peak of their artistic development reached Karin Kunde as her voice transformed from a dramatic soprano to dramatic mezzo-soprano and alto. Since then she has become a popular performer for the alto parts in J.S. Bach's oratorios, the great romantic works, the Verdi's Requiem, as well as modern works. She has sung at the main churches of Hamburg, such as St. Michaelis, St. Katharine and St. Petri, at the Schleswig Dom and Lübeck Dom. A tour England, brought her to the Assembly Hall / Tunbridge Wells where she sang Didymus in enthusiastic performance of Theodora by Georg Frideric Handel. She has sung together with conductors such as Carl Gorvin, Uwe Gronostay, Hans-Joachim Marx or Caspar Richter.
Karin Kunde is also known as a Lieder singer with her expressive and intelligent interpretations. Unforgettable are her performances of orchestral songs by Wagner and Gustav Mahler. Together with the pianist Jochen Brockmann she gives recitals in Germany and abroad with various programmes. In particular, they co-operate with the Pfohl-Woyrsch-Gesellschaft for the revival of the Lieder of these two composers. Her repertoire includes more than 500 Lieder. With the Swiss organist Christoph Maria Moosmann, she appeared under the name "Antiphona" in a church concert evening with poems and compositions of Hildegard von Bingen. |
