Born in Trier, Germany, Susanna Risch grew up in a family of musicians. From the age of ten, continuing up to her second year of studies at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg, she took lessons of oboe. With the oboe she participated in numerous ensembles and orchestras. It was a valuable experience for her to cooperate with wellknown conductors (such as Jonathan Seers or Michael Luig) and also to tour through Germany and Greece as well as to participate in the release of a recording (Puccini´s “Madama Butterfly” with Eliane Coelho as Butterfly). She first studied voice at the “Mozarteum” Salzburg for two years, then continued at the “Musikhochschule Karlsruhe”, where she studied with Professor Maria Venuti and finally finished her studies at the opera-school of the “Musikhochschule Würzburg” with Professor Jutta Bucelis-Dehn.

She had master-classes with KS Hilde Zadek, Professor Curt Widmer, Ingeborg Most and Professor Hanna Ludwig and succeeded in various singing-contests as for example: Finalist at the international singing contest “Debut in Meran” 1998; Finalist at the singing contest “Erster deutscher Operettenpreis” 2001; Second jury-prize and first prize of the audience at the “Internationaler Robert Stolz-Gesangswettbewerb Wiener Operette” 2004.

Susanna Risch made her stage-debut in 1997 at the theatre in Erfurt with the “Rosalinde” in J.Strauss` operetta “Die Fledermaus”, a role she also interpreted with maestro Gustav Kuhn at the “Tiroler Festspiele Erl” 2002. She participated in the “Moselfestwochen” in 2003 and 2005 as well as in the “Antikenfestspiele Trier” and the “Orff-Festspiele Andechs” in 2004, where she worked with Heiko Matthias Förster and the munich symphony orchestra for the first time. In the same year, she was invited by this orchestra to sing the soprano´s part in Beethoven´s ninth symphony during a tournee to Seoul, Korea.

She has been involved in several CD and radio productions as well as in some world premieres and gives concerts, primarily in Germany and Austria, with a broad repertoire from the baroque up to the avantgarde in opera, operetta, german Lied , sacred music and also musical-, broadway- and jazzsongs. In 2006, she interpreted the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart´s "CosÌ fan tutte" in Milan. In summer 2006, she appeared at the "Elbland Festival Wittenberge", singing two grand Open-Air-Gala-Concerts, that have been broadcasted on television several times, with such well-known singers as René Kollo and Eva Lind. In 2007, she sang the part of Sieglinde in Wagner´s "Die Walküre" in the Munich Philharmonic with the "Staatskapelle Weimar" and renowned colleagues as Christian Franz and Janice Dixon.

Source: Susanna Risch

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