Vanessa is a singer specializing in German opera repertoire. A young artist of the 2019 Bayreuth Festival Masterclass in Bayreuth, Germany and semi-finalist of the 2018 Richard Wagner International Singing Competition at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, she has also performed the roles of Sieglinde (Die Walküre), Freia (Das Rheingold) and Gutrune (Götterdämmerung) where she received glowing reviews. In the 2022 season, Vanessa sang her premier performance of Chrysothemis in Strauss´s Elektra with Powerhouse Opera in Toronto, Canada. She repeated this role in June, 2023 with the newly formed MusikfürMusik Artist Collective in Berlin, Germany, where she also made her debut performance of Senta in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer in May, 2023.
Future performances with the MusikfürMusik Collective in the 2023/2024 season include lots of Strauss opera: the Primadonna/Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), Salome and Chrysothemis in Elektra.
Born in Toronto, Canada and of German heritage, Vanessa studied at York University, Canada where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in music and theatre set and costume design. Vanessa went on the complete a masters degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London (Music Performance with Distinction) where she studied with Penelope Mackay and Sarah Walker. She received an additional masters degree in Opera Performance from the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität, Vienna, Austria. Vanessa has also been a member of the distinguished Bayreuth Festival Chorus.
Vanessa began her career singing contemporary and 20th century music. She was the winner of the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a finalist in the Patricia Routledge English Song Competition as well as the third place winner of the prestigious Canada Council sponsored Eckhardt-Gramattée Competition in 2011. She went on the perform works by several contemporary composers. She also showed a particular passion and affinity for German repertoire when she was selected to sing in the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme’s Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf Masterclass with Roger Vignoles (sponsored by the Canadian Aldeburgh Foundation). This later led to her first professional role debut as Agathe in C. M. von Weber’s Der Freischütz in Germany.
Early operatic credits included Mélisande in the Constant / Debussy / Brook's Impressions de Pelléas, Drusilla (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Madama Cortese (Viaggio a Reims), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Giulietta (I Capuletti e i Montecchi, Bellini), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) the Governess (The Turn of the Screw, Britten) and Agathe (Der Freischütz).
Current repertoire includes Chrysothemis (Elektra), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), The title role of Strauss’ Salome, and Ariadne auf Naxos Sieglinde (Die Walküre), Gutrune and Dritte Norn(Götterdämmerung), Elsa (Lohengrin), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Gerhilde (Die Walküre) and Marie (Wozzeck).
Performances in concert for Vanessa inlude Opera Biel (Switzerland), the Leipziger Barockorchester (Germany), Konzertgesellschaft Bad Kreuznach (Germany), Stratford Symphony Orchestra (Canada), The London Singers (Canada), Haydn Orchester Eisenstadt (Germany), Ensemble Neue Streicher Klosterneuburg (Austria), Collegium Instrumentale Brugense (Belgium) and the Pax Christie Chorale (Canada).
Vanessa currently resides in Berlin, Germany.
Photo by Sascha Damm
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