Maria Hussmann (Germany)

Directing, Acting

German Soprano Maria Husmann joined the Hamburg State Opera at age 22, giving her debut as Barbarina in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. She was also a company member of the Stuttgart State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera Munich.  

She is especially renowned for her interpretations of contemporary music both in opera and on the concert podium. Notable successes include Marie in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at the Hannover State Opera, Jenny in Weill’s Mahagonny at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lucille in Dantons Tod at the Bavarian State Opera and Lulu at the Dresden State Opera.

She is among the preferred artists of contemporary composers Hans Werner Henze, Aribert Reimann and especially György Kurtág, whose Four Capriccios op. 9 she also performed at the Teatro alla Scala Milan.

She has worked with some of the most renowned directors of our age, such as Peter Zadek, Kurt Horres, Dieter Dorn, Günter Krämer, Achim Freyer and Giancarlo del Monaco.

From 1992 to 1998 Maria Husmann also regularly appeared in prose theatre productions and solo cabaret programs at the prestigious Berliner Ensemble, the theatre founded and directed by Bertolt Brecht. Tours with her solo programs took her to all the major German prose stages. She took her first steps towards directing under the wing of Peter Palitzsch, with whom she gave workshops all over Germany for both singers and actors. She has been teaching stagecraft for singters internationally now for many years in Marseille and at David Moss‘s Institute for Living Voice as well as courses on the interpretation of Brecht songs and contemporary music at the Klangwerktage Hamburg.