Otto Susanne
Born in Ansbach, she studied the flute and voice at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg in Breisgau. In 1983 she met Luigi Nono, who wrote a number of his later works for her low contralto voice (Risonanze erranti, Guai ai gelidi mostri,Caminantes… Ayacucho, Prometeo). She has interpreted works notably by Wolfgang Rihm, Klas Huber, and Pierre Boulez under the baton of leading conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Michael Gielen, and Ingo Metzmacher. She has appeared at the Gasteig in Munich, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Festival d’Automne in Paris, Warsaw Autumn, Berliner Festwochen, Maggio Musicale in Florence and the Venice Biennale. In the 1989/90 artistic season she cooperated with the State Opera in Hamburg, performing Wolfgang Rihm’s Hamletmaschine and Eroberung von Mexiko. In 1992 she concertised with the Berlin Philharmonic and the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg at the Donaueschingen Musiktage festival. In 1995–97 she appeared on several occasions at the Salburg Festival and the Musica Festival in Strasbourg. She made her Carnegie Hall début in 1999 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado. She also gave the first performances of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Düfte-Zeichen (2003) and Dieter Schnebel’s Symphony No. 10 (2005). She has a long-standing cooperation with ensembles of ancient music (Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Barockorchester in Freiburg) and new music (ensemble recherche, Ensemble Modern). Her concert repertoire embraces a great many musical styles and periods, from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to oratorios reaching from Bach to Verdi; occasionally she takes up jazz and pop repertoire too.
