Susanne Gritschneder
Susanne Gritschneder was born in Munich and completed her singing studies at the University of the Arts in Bern with Elisabeth Glauser. She also participated in masterclasses with Brigitte Fassbaender, Thomas Hampson and Wolfram Rieger.
The mezzo-soprano has appeared both in Germany and further afield at opera houses such as the Frankfurt Opera, the Leipzig Opera, the Theater Freiburg and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. From 2012 to 2017 she was an ensemble member of the Theater St Gallen. In 2023 she made her house debut at the Opéra de Lausanne (delayed due to the pandemic) in the world premiere of Christian Favre’s Davel.
Her repertory includes roles such as Fortunata in Maderna’s Satyricon, Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Flosshilde (Das Rheingold), Schwertleite (Die Walküre), Mother Goose (The Rake’s Progress), Dryad (Ariadne auf Naxos), La Cieca (La Gioconda), Afra (La Wally), Brigitta (Die tote Stadt), Olga and Larina (Eugene Onegin), Maddalena (Rigoletto) and Second and Third Lady (Die Zauberflöte). She sang in John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2 directed by Heiner Goebbels at the Ruhrtriennale.
Her busy concert schedule has taken her to venues such as the Zurich Tonhalle, the Filharmonia Łódź and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, and to perform with the Munich Radio Orchestra under Ulf Schirmer at the Richard Strauss Days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Her concert repertory includes works such as Verdi’s Requiem, Bach’s oratorios, Handel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Pergolesi and Dvořák’s settings of the Stabat Mater, Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.
She has given recitals at venues including the Cologne Philharmonie, the Alte Vogtei in Burgkunstadt, the Munich Gasteig and the Konzerthaus Bern, and at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Heidelberger Frühling Festival. During the pandemic she gave a recital featuring works by Brahms, Schumann and Ethel Smyth which was broadcast live by SRF.
Susanne Gritschneder has been supported by scholarships from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation) and from the Richard Wagner Society in Munich. In 2009 she received the promotional prize from the Richard Strauss Competition and first prize from the Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation.