The German mezzo-soprano, Annekathrin Laabs, studied voice at the Hoschule für Musik in Dresden with Professor Christiane Junghanns. She attended master-classes given by Anna Reynolds, Brigitte Fassbaender and Hans-Joachim Beyer.
Since 2002 Annekathrin Laabs has worked on a freelance basis, primarily establishing her reputation as an interpreter of J.S. Bach’s compositions. Under the conductor Peter Schreier she performed in Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) concerts in Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Luxembourg and at the Munich Philharmonic Hall; in J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor (BWV 232) she sang at the Los Angeles Opera and the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. She has closely collaborated with the Dresdner Kammerchor and Dresdner Barockorchester, with which under Hans-Christoph Rademann she has regularly performed at various festivals (for example, at Alten Oper Frankfurt, Dresdner Musikfestspiele and Barockfest Münster). At concerts in Germany, Italy and Poland she has performed with the conductors Hansjörg Albrecht, Michael Schönheit, Ekkehard Klemm, Matthias Jung, Matthias Grünert, Wolfgang Katschner and Andrzej Kosendiak.
When it comes to operatic roles, she has sung Twaise and the Old Nun in Paul Hindemith’s Das Nusch-Nuschi and Sancta Susanna in the opera and radio production of RiasJugendorchester at the Hebbeltheater in Berlin (2001), Oreste in Antonio Lotti’s opera Ascanio presented by Batzdorfer Hofkapelle in Meissen, at Bachfest Leipzig and Bayreuth (2004), the role of Hänsel in the semi-scenic version of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel with Neune Elbland Philharmonie. In 2007 she portrayed the Sorceress (Purcell: Dido and Aeneas) with Singakademie Dresden and Speranza and Proserpina (Monteverdi: L’Orfeo) at the Helsfelder Opernsommer festival. For her performance in this role she won the Helsfelder Orpheus award. |