Julia Oesch

The German mezzo-soprano, Julia Oesch, began her musical studies playing the violin. While studying at the Frankfurt Conservatory (as a junior student at Dr. Hoch's), she also received voice lessons from Karin Geber-Brandt who is still advising her vocally. In 1992 she continued to study voice at the Musikhochschule Detmold with Ingeborg Ruß. In the summer of 1994 she won a scholarship 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 (1995-1997). Julia Oesch received additional training in master-classes with such artists as Barbara Bonney, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Hampson, Brigitte Fassbaender and Gustav Kuhn. In 1998 and 2001 she won international competitions: Debut in Meran (Italy) and the Hariclea Darclee contest (Braila/ Rumania).

In 1997 Julia Oesch started her international freelance career. She performs in Europe and the USA. As an opera singer she has been engaged at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, the Frankfurt Opera, the Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, the Stuttgart State Opera, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, the Zürich Opera, 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, and the Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, among others.

Her broad operatic repertoire encompasses many Wagner roles, including roles of her Fach in the Ring des Nibelungen (Erda, Fricka, 1. Nome, Waltraute), also includes Italian, Russian and German parts like Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph W. Gluck, Annina in La Traviata), Larina in Eugene Onegin), Mary in Der Fliegende Holländer and Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel.

Conductors, such as Christian Thielemann, Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Harding, Gustav Kuhn and Christoph von Dohnányi are most important in her career. Acclaimed music festivals invite her 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).

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 composers, such as of Henri Duparc, Georges 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, J.S. Bach's Christmas-Oratorio (BWV 248), St. John’s Passion (BWV 245) and B-minor Mass (BWV 232), Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Bruckner's Mass F-minor 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 recording of Richard Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen (Arte Nova label): Das Rheingold; Erda; Die Walkure; Fricka; Siegfried; Erda; Gotterdammerung; 1. Norne. Furthermore she and participated in DVD productions of Verdi's La Traviata, Strauss' Die Ägyptische Helena and Korngold's Die Tote Stadt.

In 2008, Julia Oesch participated in the foundation and organisation of, while also performing for, the  first FrauenKunstFestival (Women’s Art Festival) in Worms.

Julia Oesch sang one of the Elves and under-studied the role of The Omniscient Sea Shell in Die Aegyptische Helena at the Salzburg Festival last year, and covered the role of Kundry (Parsifal)  and sang one of the Flower Maidens (Parsifal) 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. 2008/2009 projects include Wagner's Mary in Der Fliegende Holländer with the Bavarian State Opera and at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Kornogold’s Lucienne in Die tote Stadt at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Die Zauberflöte with the Theater an der Wien and Das Lied Von Der Erde in Moscow.

In the season 2009/10 she sings, a.o. Waltraute (Götterdämmerung) at Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon, Fricka (Rheingold) with Staatsoper Hannover, a recital tour with new Lied repertoire (Mannheim, Wiesbaden, Berlin), as well as Mendelssohn’s Elias in Mannheim.

Julia Oesch's website