Nikola Hillebrand © Christian Kleiner
Nikola Hillebrand © Christian Kleiner
SOPRANO

Nikola Hillebrand

Representation: World

BIOGRAPHY

German soprano Nikola Hillebrand continues to receive critical acclaim for her radiant voice and elegant timbre, her lightness of touch and polished technique as well as her authentic, charming stage presence and highly nuanced interpretations.

While still in the early stages of her career, the young soprano has already appeared in leading opera and concert houses such as the Bavarian State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival and Vienna’s Musikverein. After joining the ensemble of the Semperoper Dresden in autumn 2020, Nikola Hillebrand appears in the current and upcoming season as Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Musetta (La Bohème), Zdenka (Arabella), Sophie (Rosenkavalier), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) and Adele (Die Fledermaus). The latter role she also performed alongside Jonas Kaufmann as Eisenstein at the Semperoper's New Year's Eve concert in 2018. Other highlights from last season include Zdenka in Richard Strauss' Arabella at the Theater Bonn and concert performances of Johann Strauss’ Fledermaus with the Orchestre national de Lyon. In the role of Zdenka she also celebrated an outstanding debut at the Opernhaus Zürich. In December 2022 Nikola Hillebrand was highly acclaimed for her debuts as Pamina and Adele at the Staatsoper Hamburg. In January 2024 she will go on to make her debut as Cunigonde in Bernstein’s Candide at the Theater an der Wien and in the summer of 2024 she will sing her first Agathe in a new production of Weber’s Freischütz at the Bregenz Festival.

To date, Nikola Hillebrand has worked with conductors such as Giovanni Antonini, Adam Fischer, Fabien Gabel, Stephan Gottfried, Manfred Honeck, René Jacobs, Václav Luks, Antonello Manacorda, Andris Nelsons, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Raphaël Pichon, Markus Poschner, Jérémie Rohrer, Alexander Soddy, Robin Ticciati and Franz Welser-Möst. Concert tours have taken the young soprano to Vienna’s Musikverein, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Laeizshalle in Hamburg, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, the Musikfest in Bremen, and overseas to South Korea, Egypt and Oman.

Further highlights have included performances of Brahms’ Requiem together with Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie Essen, excerpts from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel with the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich in Grafenegg, as well as sacred works by Mozart with the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Manfred Honeck in the Semperoper Dresden. A tour of arias by Mozart and Mendelssohn took Nikola Hillebrand to Germany and Switzerland with the Basler Kammerochester. Additional notable performances have included Myslivecek's Abramo ed Isacco with the Collegium 1704 under Václav Luks at the Salzburg Festival, Mahler's IV Symphony with the Basel Symphony Orchestra conducted by Markus Poschner, Strauss Lieder with Fabien Gabel in Stavanger, Mendelssohn's Paulus conducted by Fabien Gabel in Grafenegg, Haydn’s Creation with the Orchestre national de France under the baton of Andrés Orozco-Estrada in Paris, Mahler’s 2nd and 8th Symphony with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Andris Nelsons, Orff’s Carmina Burana with Kazuki Yamada in Monte Carlo and Beethoven’s C-Major Mass at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

In summer 2023, she performed Haydn's Creation under the baton of Giovanni Antonini at the festivals in Herrenchiemsee, Gstaad and Klosters. At the Salzburg Festival she could be heard in Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate and his Coronation Mass under the baton of Roberto González-Monjas and took on the role of Elisa in a concert performance of Mozart's Re Pastore conducted by Adam Fischer. The opening concert of the Grafenegg Festival saw Nikola Hillebrand perform as a soloist in Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream conducted by Yutaka Sado. In the fall of 2023, she performed Haydn's Theresienmesse together with Concentus Musicus and Stefan Gottfried at the Vienna and Graz Musikverein, Lieder by Richard Strauss with the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich conducted by Jun Märkl in Vienna and St. Pölten, and Brahms' Requiem with the Orchestre national de France under Cristian Măcelaru in Paris.

Alongside her opera and concert activities Nikola Hillebrand is a passionate Lied singer and was awarded first prize at the international song competition "Das Lied 2019" in Heidelberg (with a jury chaired by Thomas Quasthoff). She most recently celebrated her recital debuts at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, at Leeds-Lieder, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Pierre-Boulez-Saal in Berlin, Wigmore Hall in London, the Essen Philharmonie, the Musikverein Graz, the International Hugo-Wolf Academy in Stuttgart as well as at the Brucknerhaus Linz. In the current season, Nikola Hillebrand will be performing Lieder at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, at the Heidelberger Frühling, at the Leeds Lieder Festival, at the Teatro Felice in Genova, at the Tongyeong Festival in South Korea and together with Patricia Nolz in a duo recital at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

After finishing her studies in Munich, Nikola was engaged by the Nationaltheater Mannheim. As a member of the ensemble, she appeared in roles such as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Despina (Così fan tutte), Gilda (Rigoletto), Norina (Don Pasquale) and Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte). There, she also celebrated notable success  with her interpretation of the title role in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea.

2023 | 2024

www.nikolahillebrand.com

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by artist management.

VIDEOS

CALENDAR

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

Eric Cutler, the emporer
Camilla Nylund, the empress
Evelyn Herlitzius, nurse
N.N., spirit messenger
Nikola Hillebrand, A keeper of the temple's threshold
Lea-ann Dunbar, the falcon's voice
Christa Mayer, a voice from above
N.N., Barak
Miina-Liisa Värelä, Baraks wive
Rafael Fingerlos, the one-eyed
Tilmann Rönnebeck, the one-armed
Tansel Akzeybek, the hunchedbacked

Christian Thielemann, conductor
David Bösch, staging
Patrick Bannwart, stage design and video
Falko Herold, costumes
Fabio Antoci, light
Johann Casimir Eule, dramaturgy
André Kellinghaus, choir

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
Kinderchor der Semperoper Dresden
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS

Nikola Hillebrand, Soprano
Julius Drake, Piano

Lieder by Franz Schubert, Clara Schumann and Richard Strauss

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

Eric Cutler, the emporer
Camilla Nylund, the empress
Evelyn Herlitzius, nurse
N.N., spirit messenger
Nikola Hillebrand, A keeper of the temple's threshold
Lea-ann Dunbar, the falcon's voice
Christa Mayer, a voice from above
N.N., Barak
Miina-Liisa Värelä, Baraks wive
Rafael Fingerlos, the one-eyed
Tilmann Rönnebeck, the one-armed
Tansel Akzeybek, the hunchedbacked

Christian Thielemann, conductor
David Bösch, staging
Patrick Bannwart, stage design and video
Falko Herold, costumes
Fabio Antoci, light
Johann Casimir Eule, dramaturgy
André Kellinghaus, choir

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
Kinderchor der Semperoper Dresden
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

Eric Cutler, the emporer
Camilla Nylund, the empress
Evelyn Herlitzius, nurse
N.N., spirit messenger
Nikola Hillebrand, A keeper of the temple's threshold
Lea-ann Dunbar, the falcon's voice
Christa Mayer, a voice from above
N.N., Barak
Miina-Liisa Värelä, Baraks wive
Rafael Fingerlos, the one-eyed
Tilmann Rönnebeck, the one-armed
Tansel Akzeybek, the hunchedbacked

Christian Thielemann, conductor
David Bösch, staging
Patrick Bannwart, stage design and video
Falko Herold, costumes
Fabio Antoci, light
Johann Casimir Eule, dramaturgy
André Kellinghaus, choir

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
Kinderchor der Semperoper Dresden
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

Eric Cutler, the emporer
Camilla Nylund, the empress
Evelyn Herlitzius, nurse
N.N., spirit messenger
Nikola Hillebrand, A keeper of the temple's threshold
Lea-ann Dunbar, the falcon's voice
Christa Mayer, a voice from above
N.N., Barak
Miina-Liisa Värelä, Baraks wive
Rafael Fingerlos, the one-eyed
Tilmann Rönnebeck, the one-armed
Tansel Akzeybek, the hunchedbacked

Christian Thielemann, conductor
David Bösch, staging
Patrick Bannwart, stage design and video
Falko Herold, costumes
Fabio Antoci, light
Johann Casimir Eule, dramaturgy
André Kellinghaus, choir

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
Kinderchor der Semperoper Dresden
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS
 

CONTACT

Representation: World

IN FOCUS

NIKOLA HILLEBRAND debuts as Cunegonde in Bernstein's Candide at Theater an der Wien
17Jan2024
NIKOLA HILLEBRAND debuts as Cunegonde in Bernstein's Candide at Theater an der Wien

With Candide, Leonard Bernstein's fast-paced mixture of opera, musical and revue conquers the stage of the MusikTheater an der Wien from 17 January!

READ ARTICLE
NIKOLA HILLEBRAND | returns to the concert podium
27Nov2023
NIKOLA HILLEBRAND | returns to the concert podium

The journey continues, as Nikola Hillebrand takes to the concert stage once more this November in Vienna and Paris with performances from Bach, to Brahms, to Strauss.

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NIKOLA HILLEBRAND celebrates her next role debut
08Sep2023
NIKOLA HILLEBRAND celebrates her next role debut

Bringing in the new season at the Semperoper Dresden, Nikola Hillebrand debutes in the role of Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. We wish her a heartfelt toitoitoi!

READ ARTICLE