| Julia Oesch | Mezzo-Soprano |
German mezzo-soprano Julia Oesch performs in Europe and the USA. As an opera singer she has been engaged at the Huntington Theatre in Boston/USA, at the German theaters in Munich (Staatsoper), Wiesbaden, Bielefeld, Kassel, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Koblenz, in Italy (Venice, Palermo, Napels, Cagliari, Verona, Trieste, Rome, Catania),
at the Opéra du Rhin Strasbourg, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris (France), at the Spanish Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, at the Opernhaus Zürich (Switzerland), in Lisbon (Portugal) at the Teatro São Carlos, among others. In her opera repertoire she often chooses the works by Richard Wagner, i.e. the roles of her Fach in the Ring des Nibelungen: Erda (Rheingold & Siegfried), Floßhilde (Rheingold), Fricka (Rheingold & Walküre), Rossweisse, Schwertleite (Walküre), 1. Norne, Waltraute (Götterdämmerung). Furthermoreher roles include Orfeo from Orfeo & Euridice by Christoph W. Gluck, Hänsel from Humperdinck's Hänsel & Gretel, Mozart’s 3. Dame from Die Zauberflöte, 1. Magd from Elektra by Strauss or Margret from Berg’s Wozzek. Conductors, such as Christian Thielemann, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Kuhn and Christoph von Dohnányi are most important in Julia Oesch's career. Acclaimed music festivals invite Ms. Oesch as an opera and concert singer, i.e. the Kammeroper Schloß Rheinsberg (Germany), the Tanglewood Music Center in the USA, the Ravinia Festival near Chicago (USA), the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl, the Richard Wagner Festival in Wels, the Wiener Festwochen and the Salzburger Festspiele (all in Austria), as well as the French Festival in Aix-en-Provence and the March Music Days in Bulgaria, where she sang Mahler’s Lied von der Erde.
Julia Oesch's musical studies began with playing the violin. While studying at the Frankfurt Conservatory she also received voice lessons from Karin Geber-Brandt who is still advising her vocally. In 1992 Julia Oesch continued to study voice at the Musikhochschule Detmold with Ingeborg Ruß. In the summer of 1994 she was a scholarship recipient at the Tanglewood Music Center. There she met and worked with Phyllis Curtin and Seiji Ozawa. She earned her Master of Music Diploma at Boston University in 1997, studying with Phyllis Curtin. Julia Oesch received additional training in masterclasses with such artists as Barbara Bonney, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Hampson, Brigitte Fassbaender and Gustav Kuhn.
Concert and church music continue to be important aspects in Julia Oesch’s performing career. She has been praised for her passionate and expressive style. Her radiant tone was described in the Boston Globe as ”rich-toned”. Besides the German Lied, she is performing French and American compositions, such as of Duparc, Bizet, Copland and Ives. With the pianist Jens Barnieck who is an alumnus of State University of New York at Buffalo she often concentrates on American song literature in concerts. Her repertoire in oratorio includes the Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi, Bach’s Christmas-Oratorio, the Johannes-Passion, the B-Minor Mass and the Matthäus-Passion, Händel’s Messiah, the Missa in C and the Requiem by Mozartand various masses by Haydn, Beethoven and Bruckner. The Choral Fantasy, the Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig van Beethoven, the Alto-Rhapsody by Johannes Brahms, as well as Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.8 (Contralto II/ Maria Aegyptiaca) and Das Lied von der Erde are the symphonic compositions in her repertoire.
Julia Oesch is represented with four roles at the complete edition of Richard Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen (Arte Nova label): Das Rheingold: Erda; Die Walküre: Fricka; Siegfried: Erda; Götterdämmerung: 1. Norne. Furthermore she recorded Verdi's La Traviata (Annina), Die tote Stadt (Lucienne) by Erich W. Korngold (DVD) and Die ägyptische Helena (Elfe) by Richard Strauss.
In 2008 the First FrauenKunstFestival (Women Arts Festival) took place in Worms (Germany), where Julia Oesch was involved as a co-director and a performer. The TV stations ZDF and SWR accompanied the festival and broadcasted their reports.
In the season 2008/2009 Julia Oesch has been engaged at the Opera La Fenice in Venice and the Teatro Massimo in Palermo with Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (Lucienne). Moreover she performed in Munich at the Staatsoper, as well as at the Staatsoper Stuttgart with the role of Mary in Wagner’s Fliegendem Holländer. Lieder-Recitals with the pianist Jens Barnieck took her to various places and festivals in Germany. The American song repertoire dominated the program.
Projects in the present season include Waltraute in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung at the Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon/ Portugal, a Lieder-recital tour in Germany and Finland with an entire new program, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s oratorio Elijah in Mannheim and the role of Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera by Verdi in London.