Katharina Magiera is appreciated for her particularly beautiful and powerful alto voice.
In 2008, she was the first Opera-Studio member in the new structure at the Frankfurt Opera house. After just one year at the studio, she was engaged as ensemble member at Oper Frankfurt.
She has worked with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Teodor Currentzis, Sebastian Weigle, Paolo Carignani, Helmuth Rilling, Gabriel Garrido, Marko Letonja, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Alexander Liebreich, Kristjan Järvi, Constantinos Carydis and others, Ivor Bolton, Constantin Trinks, Jaap van Zweden, Leo Hussain, René Jacobs, Henrik Nánási, Sylvain Cambreling, Krzysztof Urbanski, Adam Fischer…
In concert, she sang as Alto Solo in Bach’s Mass in B minor, G-F- Handel’s Messiah for the Europäischen Musikfestes Stuttgart conducted by Helmut Rilling, St Matthew Passion with the Würzburger Oratorienchor, Christmas Oratorio with the Knabenchor Capella Vocalis conducted by Eckard Weyand, Bach’s Cantatas and Passions, Mozart, Duruflé, Dvorak and Schnittke’s Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Jephta (cond. Helmut Rilling). Concert engagements have also taken Katharina Magiera to the the Salzburg Festival, Munich Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio, the Richard Strauss Festival, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radio Philharmonic and the DSO Berlin.
In “her” Opera house in Frankfurt, Katharina has sung the roles of Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte), 3. Zofe (Der Zwerg de Zemlinsky), Proserpina (L‘Orfeo), Amor and Melanto (il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), Dunyasha (The Tsar’s Bride), Alisa (Lucia di Lammermoor), Carmela (La Vida Breve), Maestra delle Novizie (Suor Angelica), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Tisbe (La Cenerentola), 1. Magd (Elektra), Hua-Qui (L’Oracolo, F.Leoni), Bradamante (Orlando Furioso), Pantalis (Mefistofele/Boïto), Eine Stimme von oben (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Blumenmädchen (Parsifal), Flosshilde (Das Rheingold), Schwertleite (Die Walküre), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare), Flosshilde (Die Götterdämmerung), Proserpina et Messaggiera (L’Orfeo), Lehrbube (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Jezibaba (Rusalka), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Wanja (Ivan Sussanin), Nancy (Martha / CD with OehmsClassics), Teresa (La sonnambula), Emilia (Otello), Margret (Wozzeck), Eduige (Rodelinda), Ein Page (Salome), Catherine (Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher), the Narrator (La Damoiselle Elue), Annina (Der Rosenkavalier, Lisa (Die Passagierin), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Erda (Rheingold), Filosofia (LʼOrontea), Irene (Theodora). Recently she has interpreted Jokaste (Ödipus Rex), Kirke/Melantho (Ulisse), Frugola (Il tabarro), Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) there.
In parallel, she has appeared as Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte) at the Opéra National in Paris, at the Theater an der Wien and at the Glyndebourne Festival and BBC Proms, as Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel) at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, as Schwertleite (Die Walküre) at the Semperoper Dresden, at the Opéra National de Paris, at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, at the Beijing Music Festival and at the Salzburg Easter Festival (direction Christian Thielemann)
Recently she has sung Erste Magd (Elektra) at Opéra National de Paris, Hexe (Königskinder), Flosshilde (Das Rheingold) and Waltraute (Götterdämmerung) at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte) and Page (Salome) at the Opéra de Paris, Schwertleite (Walküre) at the Semperoper Dresden.
Her projects for the 2023/24 season and following include Gaea (Daphne) and Nancy (F. von Flotow’s Martha) at Oper Frankfurt as well as Page (Salome) at the Opéra de Paris and Erste Magd in Baden Baden and Berlin under Kirill Petrenko.
Katharina Magiera started piano lessons at the age of 6. She pursued her vocal studies with Hedwig Fassbender and Rudolf Piernay and participated in Masterclasses with Christoph Prégardien, Hans Peter Blochwitz and Ingeborg Danz.
She was a scholarship holder of the Villa Musica of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation “Live music now”, the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and 1st prize winner of the Mendelssohn Competition. She won a special prize at the Mozart-Wettbewerb Würzburg.