Lioba Braun
After studying voice with Professor Charlotte Lehmann, Lioba Braun began her career as a singer at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, of which she was a permanent member from 1987 to 1989. It is at this time that she won the special prize of the VDMK in Berlin, the Mozart Competition in Würzburg, the Meistersinger Competition in Nuremberg and the International Lied Competition in Graz.
Lioba Braun joined the ensemble of the Vienna Volksoper in 1989, where she worked with stage directors such as Harry Kupfer, Marco Masrelli, Jérôme Savary and others. That same year, she made her début at the Vienna State Opera in The Magic Flute and at the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein with Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody. Beginning in the 1991/92 season, the Vienna State Opera welcomed Miss Braun into its ranks as an ensemble member. There she could be heard alongside Plácido Domingo and Hildegard Behrens in the new Ring production under Christoph von Dohnányi.
She has been a member of the Nationaltheater in Mannheim since 1993. Her rôles there include the leading mezzo and alto parts such as Carmen, Eboli, Delilah and Venus. The critics raved about her début as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde in Mannheim. She repeated this success in 1994 at the Bayreuth Festival under the direction of Daniel Barenboim.
She made her Scala début in December 1994 in Riccardo Muti’s new Ring production. She continued working with Muti in November and December 1995 and will return to La Scala again in 1998 at Muti’s request.
Lioba Braun has appeared at many festivals, well-known opera houses, and with distinguished orchestras such as the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Munich Philharmonic and others. She concertized with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Miss Braun has worked with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Michel Plasson, Myung Whun Chung, Armin Jordan and other noted conductors. In addition to her career as an opera and concert performer, she has also taken part in a number of recordings, for instance with Horst Stein and the Bamberger Symphoniker.
