Edith Wiens

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Edith Wiens (born June 9, 1950 in Saskatoon , Saskatchewan ) is a Canadian opera, lied and concert singer ( soprano ).

Life

Edith Wiens, daughter of a Russian Mennonite pastor, grew up in Vancouver , where she graduated from high school at the age of 16. She completed her theology and church music studies at Columbia Bible College in Clearbrook. As a DAAD scholarship holder , she began studying singing in Hanover at the age of 19. She then studied with Ernst Haefliger and Erik Werba in Munich and Richard Miller in the USA (Oberlin College and Conservatory). In 1978 she won the 2nd International Mozart Competitionawarded 1st prize in Salzburg. After completing her vocal training, she lived in Switzerland from 1977 to 1979. Edith Wiens then moved to Munich.

In 1980 Peter Girth , then managing director of the Berlin Philharmonic , engaged Edith Wiens for several concerts. This was the beginning of an international career that led her to many major orchestras, such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra , the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra , the Munich Philharmonic , the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra , the Staatskapelle Dresden , the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and all top American orchestras. She worked with well-known conductors, including Daniel Barenboim , Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Kurt Masur , Seiji Ozawa , Wolfgang Sawallisch , Klaus Tennstedt and Sir Georg Solti .

Edith Wiens made her operatic debut in 1986 at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival as Donna Anna ( Don Giovanni ) under Bernard Haitink . The soprano sang other Mozart roles in Amsterdam, Milan, Buenos Aires, Canada, the USA and Japan.

Edith Wiens gave recitals and concerts in Vienna, Moscow, New York, Washington, Berlin, London etc. The artist was a guest at international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival , the festivals in Lucerne , Dresden , Rheingau , Schleswig-Holstein , Bad Kissingen , the Berliner and Wiener Festwochen , at the London Proms a . a. m.

The soprano leads masterclasses at home and abroad and acts as a juror in international singing competitions. As a professor of singing she teaches at the Juilliard School in New York. Her students there included u. a. Aeneas Humm . She also teaches at the Junge Ensemble (Lindemann) and at the Metropolitan Opera . She is a regular guest at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Royal College. In Zurich, Oslo, Munich and Frankfurt she is also in demand to give courses for the young ensembles of the opera houses there. Its graduates sing at major opera houses and concerts around the world.

In 2011 Edith Wiens founded the International Meistersinger Academy in Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate . This academy is based on the Nuremberg University of Music and the Juilliard School and is supported by the Free State of Bavaria , the City of Neumarkt, and the federal government. Academy singers now sing in Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, Munich, Leipzig, Dresden, Zurich, Geneva, Hamburg, etc.

A comprehensive discography with recordings by Bach , Schumann , Strauss , Mahler and Zemlinsky rounds off her artistic activity. The recording Das Paradies und die Peri was awarded the London Grammy , Mahler's 4th Symphony , conducted by Armin Jordan , received the Diapason d'or .

Edith Wiens is the winner of the ARD Competition in Munich , the Mozart Competition in Salzburg and the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau . She holds several honorary doctorates and holds the rank of Officer of the Order of Canada . In 2012 she received the Pro meritis scientiae et litterarum from the Free State of Bavaria.

Edith Wiens lives in New York and Munich with her husband, the cellist Kai Moser . Her sons are the cellist Johannes Moser and the pianist Benjamin Moser .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of the prizewinners 1975–2006 (PDF; 302 kB) at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg. (Retrieved January 19, 2011.)
personal data
SURNAME Vienna, Edith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian opera, song and concert singer with a soprano voice
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Saskatoon , Saskatchewan