Christiane Karg

Christiane Karg is one of Germany's most active and versatile sopranos, with a large repertory stretching from the Baroque to contemporary music. Karg has appeared widely around Europe and beyond in opera, concert and choral music, and song recitals. Karg was born in Feuchtwangen in central Bavaria, West Germany, on August 6, 1980. Showing musical talent early, Karg took lessons on piano and flute as a child but switched to singing at age 14 after attending opera performances. She won Bavarian and German federal prizes as a teen and was admitted to the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she studied voice with Heiner Hopfner and lieder singing with Wolfgang Holzmair. Karg moved on to the Verona Conservatory in Italy, studying Italian opera. Karg rounded out her education with master classes with Grace Bumbry, Ann Murray, and Mirella Freni, among others. She began her career as part of the International Opera Studio at the Staatsoper in Hamburg, moving on to the company of the Frankfurt Opera in 2008. Two years later, she issued her solo album debut, Verwandlung: Lieder eines Jahres, on the Berlin Classics label with accompanist Burkhard Kehring. Karg has sung at many European opera houses, including the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London, and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Her recital career has included appearances at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Carnegie Hall in New York, and Wigmore Hall in London. Karg has been a prominent figure at festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (with the NDR Symphony Orchestra), Lower Saxony Music Days, and the Heidelberg Spring. She is also the creator of KunstKlang, a festival held in her hometown of Feuchtwangen since 2014, as well as "be part of it! - Musik für Alle," a youth music education program. She has gone on to record for Deutsche Grammophon, Profil, and Harmonia Mundi, where she issued the album Erinnerung: Mahler Lieder in 2020. In 2021, Karg released the holiday album Licht der Welt: A Christmas Promenade on Harmonia Mundi. She moved to BR Klassik, the label of Germany's Bavarian Radio, for a 2022 recital of songs by Debussy and Reynaldo Hahn. The following year, she was heard on a recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 in C minor ("Resurrection") with Semyon Bychkov conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. ~ James Manheim, Rovi