Nikola Hillebrand
soprano
© Miina Jung
This young German soprano, appearing at Oper Frankfurt for the first time, has sung at many leading opera houses including the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Hamburg State Opera, Theater Bonn, the Theater and der Wien, Vienna State Opera, Zurich Opera, the Opéra national de Paris and the Bregenz, Glyndebourne and Salzburg festivals and the Musikfest in Bremen, working with conductors including Adam Fischer, René Jacobs, Václav Luks, Andris Nelsons, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Alexander Soddy, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst. Recent concert work has included appearances with Concentus Musicus Wien under Stefan Gottfried, the Niederösterreich Tonkünstler-Orchester under Jun Märkl, the Orchestre national de France under Cristian Măcelaru and Pygmalion Ensemble under Raphaël Pichon. She grew up in Munich, studying singing with Fenna Kügel-Seifried an the University for Music and Theater there. She joined the National Theater in Mannheim's ensemble in 2017, where roles included Gilda (Rigoletto), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Despina (Così fan tutte), the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) and triumphant performances of the title role in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, for which she was awarded the Arnold Petersen Prize and Theodor Heuss Culture Prize. She was a member of the ensemble at the Semperoper in Dresden from the autumn of 2020 until the summer of 2024, singing roles including Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Zdenka (Arabella), Musetta (La bohème) and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel). Her repertoire also includes Cunegonde (Candide), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera) and Azema (Semiramide). She also enjoys a busy concert and won 1st Prize at the 2019 »Das Lied« competition in Heidelberg. She has appeared in recital at the Heidelberg Spring Festival, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, the Leeds and Oxford Lieder festivals, the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, in the Wigmore Hall in London, the Philharmonie in Essen, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin and Musikverein in Graz.