Mezzo-soprano CHRISTIANNE STOTIJN (Symphony No. 2 and No. 3) was born in Delft, The Netherlands, and first received her solo diploma for violin in 2000. She then pursued intensive vocal studies with Udo Reinemann at the Amsterdam Conservatory, graduating cum laude. She furthered her studies with Jard van Nes, Noelle Barker, and Dame Janet Baker. Throughout her career, she has won several important prizes, including the 2005/06 ECHO Rising Stars, the 2005 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and the Dutch Music Prize in 2008. Christianne Stotijn was also a BBC New Generation Artist in 2007.

An impassioned performer of lieder, Christianne Stotijn has performed recitals in many of the world’s premier concert halls with her accompanists Joseph Breinl and Julius Drake, with whom she has had a longstanding and fruitful collaboration. Her recital career has already seen her appear several times at Wigmore Hall, the Kleine and Grote Zaal of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Carnegie Hall, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Mozarteum Salzburg, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and Spivey Hall in Atlanta. Stotijn made her debut at the Philharmonie Berlin performing Schönberg’s Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten with pianist Mitsuko Uchida.

The eminent conductor Bernard Haitink has been an influential figure in Stotijn’s career. Following her successful performances in Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Orchestre National de France and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Haitink invited her for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the BBC Proms, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Lucerne Festival, Rückert Lieder with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St. Matthew Passion with the Boston Symphony, as well as Das Lied von der Erde with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Other important conductors with whom Christianne Stotijn has performed include Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Jurowski, Kurt Masur, René Jacobs, Iván Fischer, Daniele Gatti, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Andrew Davis, Marc Minkowski, Charles Dutoit, and Andris Nelsons.

On the concert platform, Stotijn has appeared with such important orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdam Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, and Bayerische Rundfunk.

Christianne Stotijn’s operatic career has seen her perform roles such as Pauline in Pique Dame at the Paris Opera, Ottavia in Poppea at the Netherlands Opera, Cornelia in Giulio Cesare at the Monnaie and Netherlands Opera, the title role of Tamerlano at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Ottavia in Poppea at the Teatro Campoamor Oviedo as well the Teatro Arriaga, Bilbao. She has collaborated with directors such as Graham Vick, Emilio Sagi, Pierre Audi, and the Hermanns.

Stotijn records for the Onyx label and so far her discography includes recordings of Schubert, Berg, and Wolf accompanied by Joseph Breinl, Mahler songs accompanied by Julius Drake, Tchaikovsky lieder accompanied by Drake, which won the BBC Music Magazine’s Vocal Recording of 2010, and her latest Onyx recording, Stimme der Sehnsucht - Lieder by Pfitzner, Strauss & Mahler, accompanied by Breinl. For the MDG label, Christianne Stotijn recorded a work close to her heart - Frank Martin’s Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke, which was awarded the ECHO Klassik Award in 2008.

Further details can be found on Christianne Stotijn’s website: christiannestotijn.com