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The German soprano, Katharina Leyhe, received her first singing lessons from her father, the tenor Professor Henner Leyhe, who has been her mentor since. She completed her studies at the conservatories of Karlsruhe and Cologne with Professor Christiane Hampe and Professor Klesie Kelly-Moog and completed her training in master-classes with Professor Judith Beckmann and Professor Christoph Prégardien. In July 2005, she obtained her diploma with distinction.
Katharina Leyhe gained the first stage experience at the Theater Lübeck and expanded it with productions of the Musikhochschule Köln and the Oper Düsseldorf. Through her participation in the Chor-Akademie des Schleswig-Holstein-Musik-Festivals and the Chor der Bamberger Symphoniker, she met renowned conductors such as Michael Gläser, Robin Gritton and Sir Neville Marriner. She has toured such countries as Spain, France, Israel and Japan, where she performed as a soloist. As a concert singer, she has mastered all the important parts of the soprano compartment from J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel to W.A. Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, and was already celebrate great successes at the Rheingau Musik Festival and Festival Altenberger Musiksommer. Highlights of her concert performances were solo performances as part of the Japan Festival "La folle journée" headed by Rolf Beck and in February 2009, a concert with the Dresdner Philharmonie in the Frauenkirche under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner. On stage, she made her debut in July 2004 at the Kölner Oper in a co-production with WDR and then took over in the following season, the part of Sandrina in W.A. Mozart's Gärtnerin aus Liebe. For the 2005-2006 season she was engaged as a permanent member of the Kölner Oper, where she appeared in roles such as Gretel, Annie, Juliet, Wildschütz-Baronin and Queen of the Night and especially the Italian singer in Richard Strauss' Capriccio at the Edinburgh International Festival was successful.In April 2007 she won the Richard-Strauss-competition in Munich. |
