Wiebke Lehmkuhl

Wiebke Lehmkuhl, a contralto from Oldenburg, studied in Hamburg with Ulla Groenewold and Hanna Schwarz. While still a student, she was engaged as a member of the ensemble at Opernhaus Zürich. She celebrated her international breakthrough in 2012 at the Salzburg Festival under Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Equally successful on the opera and concert stages, she works with conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding, Fabio Luisi and Riccardo Chailly.

As Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, she has appeared as a guest artist in Munich, Paris, London and Geneva, among others; in 2025/26, highlights include debuts at the Vienna State Opera as well as a European tour with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Nézet-Séguin.

Further highlights of the season include Mahler’s Second Symphony in Basel, Third Symphony in Rome, Vienna and St. Florian, and Eighth Symphony in Copenhagen and Vienna, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis in Boston and Paris, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri in Vienna and Paris, and a song recital in Cologne. Her discography includes Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on Decca and C. P. E. Bach’s Magnificat on Harmonia Mundi.