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Anna Prohaska (Soprano)

Born: 1983 - Neu-Ulm, Bavaria, Germany

The German-born of Austrian-origin soprano, Anna Prohaska, was born into a distinguished musical family. Her father is an opera director from Austria; her mother is an Irish-English opera singer; her brother Daniel is a tenor; her grandfather was the conductor and teacher Felix Prohaska; her great-grandfather was the composer Carl Prohaska. Anna was born in Neu-Ulm, Germany, from the age of 6, she grew up in Vienna and then moved with her parents to Berlin. Here the music director Eberhard Kloke was her private music teacher. She studied voice with Norma Sharp and Brenda Mitchell at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin; she also studied lieder performance with Wolfram Rieger. Her awards include: selection for the Académie Européenne de Musique in Aix-en-Provence in 2003; Hanns Eisler Prize for composition and performance of contemporary music in 2005; selection for Internationale Händelakademie Karlsruhe in 2006; and the Daphne Prize in 2008.

In 2002, when she was 19, Anna Prohaska made her stage debut as the child Flora in in Harry Kupfer’s production of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the Komische Oper Berlin; she was awarded the Bavarian Theater Prize for her performance. She then performed there in Willy Decker’s production of Albert Herring. After taking on the role of Frasquita at short notice in a production of Carmen conducted by Daniel Barenboim at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin Unter den Linden, she was engaged a member of its permanent ensemble since the 2006-2007 season. Her roles there have included Blonde in W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Despina in Così fan tutte, Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Poppea in George Frideric Handel’s Agrippina and Tebaldo, with with conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Philippe Jordan, Ingo Metzmacher and René Jacobs. In December 2010 at the Staatsoper, she sang Anne Trulove in a new production of The Rake’s Progress under Ingo Metzmacher. She made her Salzburg Festival debut in Dvorák’s Rusalka with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst in 2008; in 2009 she returned for Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore and in 2010 sang her first Zerlina in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, and, in the summer of 2011, Despina in Così fan tutte. In December 2011 she appeared in the season opening of La Scala in Milan as Zerlina in a new staging of Don Giovanni.

As well as in concerts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and the Konzerthaus-Orchester Berlin, Anna Prohaska has worked closely since 2007 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, including the world premiere of a work by Wolfgang Rihm in a ceremony for Claudio Abbado. With the Berliner Philharmoniker she performed orchestral songs by Anton Webern conducted by Simon Rattle in 2008 and gave the world premiere of Rihm’s Mnemosyne under Matthias Pintscher in 2009. In 2010 she was the soloist in Alban Berg’s Lulu Suite with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado in Venezuela and Lucerne. She has performed concert arias by W.A. Mozart with Claudio Abbado. She has also appeared with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester under Daniel Harding, Mariss Jansons, Pierre Boulez and Bernard Labadie, and with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Pierre Boulez and Sir Simon Rattle.

As a Lieder singer, Anna Prohaska has performed at the Bregenz Festival, the Salzburg Mozarteum, and the Vienna Musikverein; in the spring of 2011 she released a complete recording of the Lieder of Bernd Alois Zimmermann as well as a Lieder recital titled Sirène. In 2010 Prohaska received the Schneider-Schott Music Prize. She made her Lucerne Festival debut on March 19, 2010 in A. Berg’s Lulu Suite under Claudio Abbado.

Besides contemporary music and the standard repertoire, Anna Prohaska also devotes herself to early music and has worked with the RIAS-Kammerchor, Modern Times_1800 of Innsbruck, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Concerto Köln. She has given recitals at the Berlin Staatsoper, Bregenz Festival, Salzburg Mozarteum and Vienna Musikverein.

Future engagements include Blonde at the Bavarian State Opera; Despina in Così fan tutte under Marc Minkowski at the Salzburg Festival; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro under Daniel Barenboim in Berlin; Zerlina in Don Giovanni under Daniel Barenboim in Milan and and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles. A. Berg’s Lulu Suite with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Pierre Boulez and with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado; Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Simon Rattle; J.S. Bach's B minor Mass (BWV 232) with René Jacobs in Leipzig and Zürich; Felix Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with Daniel Harding in Munich and Vladimir Jurowski at the Lucerne Festival; solo recitals with Eric Schneider at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Wigmore Hall and in Vienna and with Maurizio Pollini in Paris and Lucerne; Jens Joneleit’s new opera Metanoia and Elliott Carter’s new song cycle What Are Years with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin. She also in concerts with Mariss Jansons and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Her recordings include Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Bernarda Fink, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under Bernhard Forck for Harmonia Mundi France (2009); Lieder by Bernd Alois Zimmermann with Cordelia Höfer, Alessandro Cappone, Rachel Schmidt and Trio Berlin for Wergo (2011); G.F. Handel’s Saul with Dresdner Kammerchor & Dresdner Barockorchester under Hans-Christoph Rademann for Carus, Leinfelden-Echterdingen (2011), a DVD release for Accentus Music of A. Berg’s Lulu Suite with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and Claudio Abbado. In January 2011, she signed an exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Grammophon. Her first solo album "Sirene": Lieder by Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, Henry Lawes, John Dowland, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Georges Bizet, Karol Szymanowski, Robert Schumann, Gabriel Fauré, Hugo Wolf, Arthur Honegger, Felix Mendelssohn, and Antonín Dvořák, with the pianist Eric Schneider, released in 2011, has already won the Echo Deutschen Musikpreis Klassik in the category of Young Artist (vocals).

“Anna Prohaska effortlessly mastered Anne’s coloratura outbursts, and her lullaby for the dying Tom was as moving as the production allowed.” - Opera [review of Igor Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress at the Deutsche Staatsoper, 2011]
“She sculpted her phrases elegantly, singing with confidence and emotional conviction. Her vocal range was impressive, extending from richly resounding low notes to soaring, brilliant coloratura passages.” - Opera News [review of
G.F. Handel’s Agrippina at the Deutsche Staatsoper, 2010]


More Photos

Sources:
Deuttsche Grammophon Website (May 2011)
Lucerne Festival Website (July 2012)
Askonas Holt Website (2012-2013)
Photos 11-16 by Bits & pieces from other sources; Photos 01-08 by Patrick Walker/DG); Photos 11-15 by Monika Rittershaus
Contributed by
Aryeh Oron (July 2012)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Giovanni Antonini

Soprano

[C-1] (2015): BWV 179, BWV 172

René Jacobs

Soprano

V-7 (2011): BWV 232 [2nd recording]

Wolfgang Katschner

Soprano

[C-1] (2020): Arias & choruses from Cantatas: BWV 115/4, BWV 25/1, BWV 135/ 6, BWV 57/7, BWV 208/9, BWV 44/6, BWV 105/3, BWV 150/1, BWV 150/2, BWV 430/I, BWV 31/8, BWV 430/II, BWV 179/5, BWV 150/4, BWV 82a/1, BWV 82a/5, BWV 105/6, BWV 127/3, BWV 202/1, BWV 150/6, BWV 115/ 4 [lounge version]

Václav Luks

Soprano

[C-5] (2017): BWV 84, BWV 52

Andrea Marcon

Soprano

TV Broadcast: G.F. Handel: Opera Alcina, HWV 34 [Morgana]

Hans-Christoph Rademann

Soprano

Bachfest Leipzig 2008: BWV 101, BWV 105

Links to other Sites

Prohaska, Anna (Deutsche Grammophon)
Anna Prohaska (Askonas Holt)
Anna Prohaska on Facebook
Anna Prohaska (Lucerne Festival)
Anna Prohaska (Wikipedia) [German]
Anna Prohaska (Salzburg Festival) [German]
Anna Prohaska, Soprano (Academy of Ancient Music)


Biographies of Performers: Main Page | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
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Last update: Monday, July 18, 2022 01:55