Christiane Iven was internationally active as an opera and concert singer for three decades (1986 – 2015).
Today, she is professor of singing and vice-president at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich and also works as a director and coach.
She began her singing career as a mezzo-soprano and later switched to soprano. She was a permanent ensemble member at various theatres, including many years at the Stuttgart State Opera. There and at other German and European opera houses she worked with the directing team of Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito, with Calixto Bieito, Claus Guth, Peter Konwitschny, Luc Perceval, Andreas Homoki, Stephan Herheim, Andrea Moses and others.
Her most important roles were Octavian and Feldmarschallin (Rosenkavalier), Charlotte (Werther), Agathe (Freischütz), Didon (Les Troyens), Marie (Wozzeck), Kundry (Parsifal), Elvira (Don Giovanni), Emilia Marty (Die Sache Makropulos), Sieglinde (Walküre) and Isolde (Tristan und Isolde).
She has sung concerts with major conductors and orchestras (including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Oslo Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble intercontemporaine, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich) under the baton of Marc Albrecht, Teodor Currentzis, Michael Gielen, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Heinz Holliger, Manfred Honeck, Julia Jones, Marco Letonja, Sir Neville Marriner, Matthias Pintscher, Helmut Rilling, András Schiff, Christian Zacharias, Lothar Zagrozek and others.
Her recitals with the pianists Burkhard Kehring, Igor Levit, Wolfram Rieger, András Schiff, Jan Philip Schulze and others were an important part of Christiane Iven’s concert activities and her special passion. She has been a guest at important music festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and the Schwetzingen SWR Festival.
For her outstanding artistic achievements, she was awarded the Lower Saxony State Prize and named a Baden-Württemberg Kammersängerin.
Born in Hamburg, she studied in her hometown with Judith Beckmann and with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin. She was a prize-winner at the German Music Competition and several international competitions.
From 2001 – 2007 Christiane Iven was a professor at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. Since 2013 she has held a professorship for singing at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich, where she has also been vice-president since 2021. She is a jury member at international singing competitions and gives numerous singing courses, including at the International Music Academy for Soloists (IMAS), at the International Hugo Wolf Academy and at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg.
Christiane Iven also works as a coach and consultant in the fields of music, theatre and music education. In June 2023, Christiane Iven will make her debut as a director with a new production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” at Theater Dessau.
