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, the Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Cervantes of Malaga, the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Teatro Comunale di Cagliari, the Staatstheater Kassel, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Teatro Filarmonico Verona, the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, among others. Her roles include Orfeo from Orfeo & Euridice by Christoph W. Gluck and Hänsel from Humperdinck's Hänsel & Gretel as weII as Wagnerian parts, i.e. the roles of her Fach in the Ring des Nibelungen (Erda, Fricka, 1. Nome, Waltraute). Conductors, such as Christian Thielemann, Seiji Ozawa and Gustav Kuhn are most important in Julia Oesch's career. Acclaimed music festivals invite Ms. Oesch as an opera and concert singer, i.e. the Tanglewood Music Center in the USA, the Ravinia Festival near Chicago (USA), the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl (Austria), the March Music Days in Rousse (Bulgaria), the Richard Wagner Festival in Wels (Austria) and the Salzburger Festspiele (Austria).

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 DetmoJd with Ingeborg RuB. 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. 1998 and 200 I Ms. Oesch won international competitions: Debut in Meran (Italy) and the Hariclea Darclee . contest (Braila/ Rumania).

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 "nch-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 and the B-Minor Mass, Handel's Messiah and Reinhard Keiser's Markus Passion. The Choral Fantasy and the Symphony No.9 by Ludwig van Beethoven, 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 new complete edition of Richard Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen (Arte Nova label): Das Rheingold; Erda; Die Walkure; Fricka; Siegfried; Erda; Gotterdammerung; l. Nome. Furthermore she recorded Verdi's La Traviata.

Ms. Oesch sang one of the Elves and understudied the role of The Omniscient Sea Shell in Die Aegyptische Helena at the Salzburg Festival last year, and covered the role of Kundry and sang one of the Flower Maidens with the Frankfurt Opera. She has also sung Erda in Das Rheingold and Madame Larina in Eugene Onegin in Wiesbaden. She also sang the role of Mary in Der Fliegende Holländer with the Rome Opera and will be singing Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera in Wiesbaden.