Gun-Brit Barkmin

With her expressive stage presence, soprano Gun-Brit Barkmin is considered one of the leading interpreters of Janáček, Britten, Berg, Wagner and Strauss. She studied at the Rostock Conservatory and at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden. After first engagements in Freiburg and Vienna, she became an ensemble member at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2000. Guest engagements have taken her to the Vienna State Opera, the Stuttgart Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, the Zurich Opera House, the Opéra national de Paris, the Opéra de Lyon, the Graz Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Salzburg Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival. She has interpreted complex character roles such as Marie ("Wozzeck") in Berlin and Cardiff, Salome at the Zurich Opera House, Elsa ("Lohengrin") and Chrysothemis ("Elektra") in Leipzig as well as Queen Elizabeth I in Britten's "Gloriana" and Emilia Marty ("Die Sache Makropulos") in Prague. Recent performances include Marie in Zurich, Hamburg and London, Salome at the Verbier Festival, Katerina ("Lady Macbeth von Mzensk") in Zurich and Regan (Aribert Reimann's "Lear") in Salzburg. This season, she graces the stage as Salome at the 2019 International May Festival.