Mezzo-soprano Anna Erdmann (née Schaumlöffel) has been a permanent member of the RIAS Chamber Choir since 2021. She comes from North Hesse and studied both BA Voice and MA Voice/Music Theater in the class of Prof. Dr. Peter Anton Ling at the HMTM Hannover. Guest engagements took her to the Hanover State Opera (Iphis in Iphis) and the Kiel Opera (Siegrune in Die Walküre) in 2019. In the 2019/20 season, she was a member of the ensemble at the Landesbühnen Sachsen, where she sang Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel and Suse in Der Vampyr, among other roles. In the following 2020/21 season, she was engaged as a member of the Jeune Ensemble of the Grand Théâtre de Genève (CH) for the roles of Krista in Věc Makropulos, Paquette in Candide, Second Squire and Flower Maiden in Parsifal, and Annina in La Traviata. Other roles, such as the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, and the Third Wood Nymph in Rusalka, are also part of her repertoire. Musical collaborations with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Pablo Heras-Casado, Iván Fischer, Tomáš Netopil, Jonathan Nott, and others, at venues such as the Vienna Musikverein, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Berlin Philharmonie, round off her solo career. Her concert repertoire includes works such as Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Magnificat, and numerous cantatas, masses, passions, and oratorios by Bach, as well as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and works by Rossini, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Liszt, and Duruflé.

What fascinates you about singing?

What fascinates me about singing is that I can tell a story and the listeners can not only listen, but also empathize. Terrible anger, hopeless grief, unbridled joy, even boredom—all this and much more can be expressed through singing. Above all, you need an open heart and the courage to reveal all this to an audience. As a singer, you ideally give yourself completely to a piece and sing with all your heart. Only then can listeners grasp an emotion and take something away from it for themselves.