About Nikola

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"She has it all - warm, sweet tone, elegant phrasing, and sensitivity to nuances of language; add to that the facts that she is stunningly beautiful and has a winning stage manner, and you'll see why she is already a star."

Music OMH : Melanie Eskenazi

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Nikola Hillebrand - Photo by Katharina Gebauer

The German soprano Nikola Hillebrand is praised for her bright, luminous voice with its noble timbre, her sophisticated technique and nuanced interpretation, and her heartfelt, charming delivery.

Still at the beginning of her career, she has already sung at some of the world's leading opera and concert halls such as the Bavarian State Opera, Opera House Zürich, Semperoper, the Salzburger Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival and the Vienna Musikverein. Nikola Hillebrand was a member of the Semperoper Dresden ensemble from 2020 to 2024. Hillebrand went on to perform roles such as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Musetta (La bohème), Zdenka (Arabella), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) and Adele (Die Fledermaus). She sang the latter in Semperoper firstly in 2018 alongside Jonas Kaufmann as Eisenstein at the Semperoper's New Year's Eve concert. Other highlights of last season were Zdenka in Richard Strauss' Arabella at the Theater Bonn and concert performances of Johann Strauss's Fledermaus with the Orchestre National in Lyon. She also celebrated an outstanding debut at the Zurich Opera House with the role of Zdenka. Nikola Hillebrand made her debut at the Hamburg Opera House in December 2022 as Pamina in Mozart's Magic Flute and as Adele in Strauss' Fledermaus. In January 2024, Nikola Hillebrand will make her debut as Kunigunde in Bernstein's Candide at the Theater an der Wien and in summer 2024 she will be heard for the first time as Agathe in a new production of Weber's Freischütz at the Bregenz Festival.

1. Semperoperball 2024

2. Richard Strauss orchestral songs with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra & Fabien Gabel

"Unter dem Strich ist die junge Sopranistin einfach überwältigend"

Mannheimer Morgen : Stefan M. Dettlinger

On her journey, Nikola has worked with conductors such as Giovanni Antonini, Ádám Fischer, Fabien Gabel, Stephan Gottfried, Manfred Honeck, Andris Nelsons, Alexander Soddy, Marin Alsop, Antonello Manacorda, René Jacobs, Václav Luks, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Raphaël Pichon, Markus Poschner, Jérémie Rohrer, Robin Ticciati and Franz Welser-Möst. Concert tours have taken her to the Vienna Musikverein, the Hamburg Laeizshalle, the Mozart Week in Salzburg, the Bremen Music Festival, as well as to South Korea, Egypt and Oman.

Further highlights were a Brahms Requiem with Raphaël Pichon and the Ensemble Pygmalion, as well as excerpts from Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel with the Tonkünstler Orchestra Lower Austria in Grafenegg or works by Mozart with the Staatskapelle Dresden under the direction of Manfred Honeck in the Semperoper Dresden, Myslivecek's Abramo ed Isacco with the Collegium 1704 under Václav Luks at the Salzburg Festival, Mahler's IVth Symphony with the Basel Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Markus Poschner, Strauss songs under the direction of Fabien Gabel in Stavanger, Mendelssohn's Paulus also with Fabien Gabel in Grafenegg, Haydn's Creation with the Orchestre National under the direction of Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Mahler's IInd and VIIIth Symphonies with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of Andris Nelsons and Orff's Carmina Burana under the direction of Kazuki Jamada in Monte Carlo.

In the summer of 2023, Nikola Hillebrand performed Haydn's Creation under the direction of Giovanni Antonini and sang Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate and his Coronation Mass at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Roberto González-Monjas, and the role of Elisa in a concert performance of Mozart's Re Pastore under the direction of Adam Fischer. At the opening concert of the Grafenegg Festival, she sang Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream under the direction of Yutaka Sado. In autumn 2023, Haydn's Theresienmesse followed together with the Concentus Musicus and Stefan Gottfried in the Vienna and Graz Musikverein, songs by Richard Strauss with the Tonkünstler Orchestra Lower Austria under the direction of Jun Märkl in Vienna and St. Pölten and Brahms' Requiem with the Orchestre National de France under Cristian Macelaru in Paris.

1. Le nozze di Figaro, Semperoper Dresden

2. Die Zauberflöte, Opéra national de Paris

In addition to her opera and concert activities, Nikola Hillebrand is a passionate lieder singer. She is the winner of the international song competition “Das Lied 2019” in Heidelberg (jury chairman Thomas Quasthoff) and recently celebrated her lieder recital debuts at the Heidelberger Frühling, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, the Leeds Lieder Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Essen Philharmonie, the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin, the International Hugo Wolf Academy in Stuttgart, the Graz Music Association and the Brucknerhaus in Linz. The current season will see lieder recitals at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Leeds Lieder Festival, the Teatro Felice in Genoa, the Tongyeong Festival in Korea and together with Patricia Nolz in a duo lieder recital at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

After studying in Munich, Nikola Hillebrand was engaged by the Nationaltheater Mannheim. As a member of the ensemble, she has performed roles such as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Gilda (Rigoletto), Norina (Don Pasquale), Despina (Così fan tutte) and the Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute). She enjoyed great success in her former home theater with her interpretation of the title role in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea.

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