Barbara Emilia Schedel

Before taking up her professorship at the Mozarteum, she taught for many years at the music universities in Würzburg and Karlsruhe. There she covered all areas of the principal study in voice, including the master's programme in opera, and also headed the department of vocal pedagogy. In addition, she regularly gives international masterclasses and is frequently consulted as a mentor by professional singers at important stages in their careers. Many of her graduates have gone on to secure positions at opera houses or are active in teaching and research.

In addition to her teaching activities, Barbara Emilia Schedel regularly speaks at conferences and publishes articles on topics related to vocal pedagogy. Her areas of focus include comparisons of historical methods, strategies for practising and learning, and voice regeneration.

She is Chair of the Wolfgang Hofmann Foundation, which is dedicated to the musical exploration of Wolfgang Hofmann's complete works and the promotion of young talent through annual music competitions. She is also an artistic advisor to the Wolfgang Sawallisch Foundation.

The lyric mezzo-soprano’s artistic career was shaped early on by dance training and intensive instrumental study. She won prizes for piano and cello at an early age before discovering her voice while studying piano and music education. After working as an accompanist in Denmark, she trained with Prof. Charlotte Lehmann. She also received important artistic inspiration from Margreet Honig and Rudolf Jansen in Amsterdam, as well as from Richard Miller and Neil Semer in the USA.

While still a student, she was awarded scholarships and prizes at national and international competitions, including the MDR Song Competition ‘Verfemte Musik’, the Armin Knab Competition (1st prize), the Federal Singing Competition in Berlin, and the International Mozart Festival Competition in Würzburg (special prize for contemporary music). She also received the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation’s Music Prize, endowed with €10,000. She was awarded the Bavarian Culture Prize of the IHK Foundation for her outstanding artistic achievements.

Barbara Emilia Schedel gained her first stage experience at the Stuttgart State Opera, where she subsequently appeared regularly as a guest artist until 2008. Initially, she performed predominantly lyric soprano roles, but later increasingly took on virtuoso roles in the lyric mezzo-soprano coloratura repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. She frequently collaborated with the ensemble L'arte del mondo, including at the Sanssouci Music Festival Potsdam and the International Handel Festival in Halle in a co-production of Gluck’s Le Cinesi with the Beijing Opera.

Her exceptional musicality and ability to quickly master complex scores make Barbara Emilia Schedel a highly sought-after interpreter of contemporary music. She has appeared in numerous world premieres and demanding opera productions and has made guest appearances at the National Opera in Krakow, the State Theatre in Darmstadt, and on several occasions at the National Theatre in Mannheim. In 2011, she was particularly acclaimed by the press in Vienna for the title role in Harrison Birtwistle’s Io Passion.

Her busy concert and recital schedule has brought her together with artists such as Jörg Widmann, Fazıl Say, the Borusan Quartet, and the Signum Quartet. She has worked with conductors including Helmuth Rilling, Wolfram Christ, Siegfried Köhler, Helmuth Froschauer, and Patrick Lange, as well as with orchestras such as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Munich Bach Soloists, and the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne.

Numerous radio and television productions (including SWR, WDR, MDR, and BR) document her work, including recordings from the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg. Concert tours have taken her throughout Europe, South America, the USA, China, and Japan.

CD releases have appeared on Brilliant Classics (complete edition of Beethoven's Lieder) and Naxos with the project Ophelia Songs, among others.