German mezzo-soprano Antje Lohse began her musical training at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf and pursued her graduate studies with Margreet Honig at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, during which time she was also a member of the Nieuwe Opera Academie. In addition to her studies at the conservatory, she refined her skills in song interpretation at the Conservatoire de Metz in France with baritone Udo Reinemann. She has participated in masterclasses with renowned artists Elly Ameling, Sarah Walker, Maarten Koningsberger, Rudolf Jansen and Jard van Nes.
Her diverse repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary music. In recent seasons, she has performed Schönberg's Pierrot lunaire and Lied der Waldtaube, Ton de Leeuw's Three Shakespeare Songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, Berio's Folksongs and Sequenza III, Walton's Façade, Louis Andriessen's Hadewijch (from the opera De Materie) and G. Bovet's Versammlung der Tiere with the Kammer Sinfonie Bremen. As vocal soloist of the ensembles "Het Amsterdams Kwintet" and "Ensemble Transcenturia," she frequently performed contemporary music and composers as Gerard Beljon and Toek Numan have written music for her. Recently she premiered Beljon's Morgen with the Orkest de Volharding under Jussi Jaatinen and performed Weill and Zemlinsky songs with the chamber music series of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Antje Lohse appears frequently as soloist in such oratorios as Bach's St. Matthew's and St. John's Passions, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Mozart's Requiem, Vivaldi's Gloria, and Tippett's A Child of Our Time. She has performed Mahler songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn under Hans Leenders and has presented song recitals in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France.
Operatic performances include Hänsel in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Volupia in Cavalli's L'Egisto under Kenneth Montgomery, Mazet in Gounod's La Colombe with Opera Trionfo under José Esandi, Castor in Patzelt's opera cantata Castor et Pollux and Lisinga in Gluck's Le Cinesi at the Schouwburg Haarlem, Sally in Barber's A Hand of Bridge, Dorabella in Mozart's Così Fan Tutte with the Opera aan Zee-Festival in Noordwijk and a featured role in John Adams' Nixon in China under the direction of Elsina Jansen in the Theaterfabriek Amsterdam.
Her most recent engagements include performances of M is for Medicine 2 (music and film by L.Andriessen and P. Greeneway) with the Orkest de Volharding under Ernst van Tiel and the direction of Saskia Boddeke, the role of Ernestina in L' occasione fa il ladro, set to tour throughout the Netherlands and the première of Guus Janssen' s chamberopera Faust's Licht with the Zephyr Kwartet.
At the Kameroperafestival in Zwolle she presented last spring the dutch première of Peter Maxwell Davies' The Medium, a monodrama for mezzosoprano solo, in co-operation with director Miranda Lakerveld. This performance will also appear at the Theaterfestival in Amsterdam.
"De voorstelling als geheel drijft op de geweldig zingende èn acterende Antje Lohse en het sfeervolle live-schilderwerk van Norman Perryman. Lohse mag alle lagen van Faust's onderbewuste spelen: een hond, een jongetje, een vrouw met de naam Marguerite Ida en Helena Annabel. Ze weet te voorkomen dat de hond een karikatuur wordt, en zorgd als jongetje voor het enige echte operamoment tijdens zijn sterfscene." Review Faust's Licht, NRC Handelsblad, may 2006
