Esther Dierkes is known for her powerful, luminous soprano voice, which is particularly well-suited to interpreting roles from the German and Czech repertoires. She was noticed for her outstanding performance of Rusalka at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, a production that was named “Production of the Year” by Opernwelt.
Since the 2017/2018 season, Esther has been a member of the Staatsoper Stuttgart ensemble after two years in the Staatsoper Stuttgart opera studio. There she has already sung Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and the female lead in the world premiere of Hosokawa’s Erdbeben.Träume, Mimi (La Bohème), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Ninetta (The Love of Three Oranges), Rusalka and Jenufa.
In 2019, Esther made her debut at the prestigious Glyndebourne Festival and BBC Proms as 1. Dame in a new production of The Magic Flute.
Recently, she has performed her first Wagnerian roles: Freia (Das Rheingold), Gerhilde (Die Walküre), Gutrune (Götterdämmerung) in the new “Ring” in Stuttgart.
In concert, she works with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radio Philharmonic, the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra, the HR Symphony Orchestra and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic. She is a regular guest of the Kölner Philharmonie, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and the Alte Oper Frankfurt under the baton of Hartmut Haenchen, Sylvain Cambreling, Risto Joost, Marc Soustrot, Andrew Manze and Bertrand de Billy.
Esther Dierkes is a prizewinner of the “Richard Wagner Verband”, the Cusanuswerk Foundation, the Da Ponte Foundation and the Yehudi-Menuhin “Live Music Now” e.V.
During her studies at the Frankfurt Conservatory of Music, in the class of Hedwig Fassbender, she made her debut at the Frankfurt Opera, the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the “Festival of Young Artists” in Bayreuth, at Esterhazy Castle in Eisenstadt, the Rheingau Musikfestival and the St. Margarethen Festival.
Her projects for the 2023/24 season: the title role in Jenufa in Stuttgart, Gretel at the Semperoper Dresden and in Stuttgart, 1. Dame (Die Zauberflöte) at the Opéra de Lausanne, Freia (Das Rheingold) and Gutrune (Götterdämmerung) in Stuttgart. 5. Magd (Elektra) in concert in Stuttgart, Köln and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.