Biography

Britta Schwarz was born in Neubrandenburg, Germany. She first studied singing with Christa Niko at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. She then went on to study with Christian Elssner and Harmut Zabel in Dresden, after which she was engaged to sing in the studio of the Dresden Semperoper. She has been heard in concerts with orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Dresden Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and in early music with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Musica Antiqua Köln, La Stagione Frankfurt, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, and Cantus Cölln. She makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

Concerts and lieder recitals have taken Ms. Schwarz to international festivals such as Spoleto Festival USA, Holland Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Dresden Music Festival, Blyth Valley Chamber Music, MDR Summer Festival, and the Passau European Weeks. She has collaborated in recitals with pianist Camillo Radicke and lutenist Stefan Maass and can be heard in a solo recording of Baroque cantatas on the Berlin Classics label. For several years Britta Schwarz has taught at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden. In 2010 she was appointed visiting professor of singing at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin; beginning in October 2015 she serves as honorary professor at the same institution.

(September 2015)