Karan Armstrong (USA/Germany)

Voice Lessons and Master Classes

KS Karan Armstrong studied with Lotte Lehmann, as well as Fritz Zweig and Tilly de Garmo at the Music Academy of the West in the early 60s. She gave her debut at the San Francisco Opera as Musetta in 1965 and shortly thereafter also at the Metropolitan Opera New York. She built her repertoire of lead roles at the New York City Opera and with many important companies in the US (most notably Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Cincinnati, Los Angeles). 

In 1974 she gave her debut in Europe as Micaela at the Opéra du Rhin Strasbourg. She had a sensational success as Salome at the same house the year after, whereupon she was invited to the major theatres in Europe. By the early 80s she had sung at the Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Staatsoper Vienna and in 1979 she gave her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in a new production of Lohengrin directed by her future husband Goetz Friedrich.

Karan Armstrong has often been called the primadonna of modern music because she created many lead roles in contemporary opera, such as Berio’s Un re in ascolto (Salzburg Festival 1984), Sinopoli’s Lou Salomé (Munich 1981), von Einem’s Jesu Hochzeit (Vienna, 1980), and York Hoeller’s The Master and Margarita (Paris, 1989). At the same time, her repertoire encompasses virtually all important lyric and spinto roles in French, German and Italian opera (Tosca, Sieglinde, Traviata, Butterfly, Mimì, Mélisande). 

Karan Armstrong is also recognized as an important champion of early 20th century opera. Her portrayals of Berg’s Lulu and Marie in Wozzeck, as well as of Marietta in Die tote Stadt, the title roles in Shostakovitch’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Janaceks Katya Kabanova as well as of Emilia Marty in the same composers Vec Makropoulos were instrumental in establishing these works in the international operatic repertoire. Her career now spanning more than four decades, Karan Armstrong has extended her repertoire both towards dramatic and character roles, singing roles such as Kundry, Färberin, Leonore in Fidelio, Brünnhilde, and Ortrud, as well as Klytaemnestra, Begbick, and Kostelnicka.

In 1985, Karan Armstrong was awarded the title of Kammersängerin in Baden-Württemberg, in 1994 she received the same title in Berlin. Karan Armstrong gives masterclasses in Europe, Asia and the US and has made a successful directing debut in Rostock with her production of La Traviata.

Karan Armstrongs work is documented on many CD recordings and most notably in filmed versions of Verdis Falstaff, Strauss’s Salome, Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Poulencs La voix humaine.