Anja Harteros |

Anja Harteros

Anja Harteros was born on July 23, 1972 in Bergneustadt, North Rhine-Westphalia. Father is Greek, mother is German. As a child, she went to a local music school, where she learned to play the recorder and violin. At the age of 14, she moved to the neighboring, larger city of Gummersbach and, at the same time as her general education, began taking vocal lessons from Astrid Huber-Aulmann. The first, yet unprofessional, operatic performance of Ani Harteros took place at the school, where she performed the part of Zerlina in Don Giovanni in a concert version.

In 1990, Harteros began additional studies with the conductor of the Cologne Opera and tutor Wolfgang Castorp, and the following year she entered the Higher School of Music in Cologne. Her first teacher Huber-Aulmann continued to study with Anya until 1996 and accompanied her on concert tours of the United States and Russia in 1993 and 1994. The first professional operatic debut took place in 1995, when Anya was still a student at the music institute, in the role of Servilia from the Mercy of Titus in Cologne, then as Gretel from Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.

After her final exams in 1996, Anja Harteros got a permanent position at the Opera House in Bonn, where she began to perform in a more complex and varied repertoire, including playing the roles of the Countess, Fiordiligi, Mimi, Agatha, and where she still works.

In the summer of 1999, Anja Harteros won the BBC World Singing Competition in Cardiff. After this victory, which became a major breakthrough in his career, numerous tours and concerts followed. Anja Harteros performs on all leading national and international opera stages, including Vienna, Paris, Berlin, New York, Milan, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Lyon, Amsterdam, Dresden, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, etc. She also constantly gives recitals throughout Germany, as well as in Boston, Florence, London, Edinburgh, Vicenza and Tel Aviv. She performed at the Edinburgh, Salzburg, Munich festivals.

Her repertoire includes the roles of Mimi (La Boheme), Desdemona (Othello), Michaela (Carmen), Eva (The Nuremberg Mastersingers), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Fiordiligi (Everybody Does It So), The Countess (“The Marriage of Figaro”), Arabella (“Arabella”), Violetta (“La Traviata”), Amelia (“Simon Boccanegra”), Agatha (“The Magic Shooter”), Freya (“The Rhine Gold”), Donna Anna (” Don Juan) and many others.

Every year the popularity of Ani Harteros is steadily growing, especially in Germany, and she has long been one of the world’s leading opera singers of our time. She has received many awards, including the Kammersengerin by the Bavarian Opera (2007), Singer of the Year by Opernwelt magazine (2009), Cologne Opera Prize (2010) and others.

The singer’s busy schedule of performances is scheduled for the coming years. However, due to her reserved nature and calm, slightly old-fashioned concept of the singer’s artistic and professional development (without high-profile advertising campaigns and powerful support groups), she is known mainly only to opera lovers.