Heike Wessels

HEIKE WESSELS, MEZZOSOPRANO

The german mezzosoprano Heike Wessels studied at the Folkwang University of Arts Essen and the Conservatoire National de Strasbourg. She completed her studies by attending master classes with Brigitte Fassbaender, Thomas Hampson and Dame Gwyneth Jones. In 2006 she won the 5. International Competition for young Wagner voices in Venice.

Following initial engagements at the Wuppertaler Bühnen and Staatstheater Braunschweig Heike Wessels joined in 2008 the ensemble of the Nationaltheater Mannheim singing signature roles of the dramatic mezzo fach such as Ulrica, Maddalena, Dalila, Eboli, Amneris, Brangäne, Fricka, Ortrud, Venus and Kundry. Guest contracts brought her to Oper Graz, Theater Dortmund, Volksoper Wien, Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg, Oper Frankfurt (Ortrud), Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Glyndebourne Festival and Opera Bastille Paris. In the Mannheim production of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen 2013 (staged by Achim Freyer) she appeared to great acclaim as Sieglinde followed by debuts as Santuzza, Brünnhilde in Loriot’s Der Ring an einem Abend and Agaue in Henze’s The Bassarids. 

As a concert soloist Heike Wessels has performed at various events and venues including Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Rheingau-Musikfestival, Estonian Concert Hall Tallinn, Auditorio Principe Felipe Oviedo, Philharmonie Berlin, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome and Royal Festival Hall London. She sang unter the baton of conductors like Friedemann Layer, Bertrand de Billy, Philippe Jordan, Marek Janowski, Axel Kober, Vladimir Jurowski, Dan Ettinger, Alexander Soddy, Shao Chia Lü, John Fiore, Sascha Goetzel und Gabriel Bebeselea.

Since 2018 Heike Wessels has been working as a freelancer and guested as Brünnhilde (Die Walküre) at Deutsche Oper am Rhein and at the Musical Autumn Cluj Napoca. Concert engagements brought her to the Philharmonie Cologne and Taipei National Concert Hall. In 2019 she returned to Nationaltheater Mannheim as Herodias (Salome) and Alto Soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and to Cluj Napoca as Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust). At Deutsche Oper Berlin she debuted as Kundry (Parsifal).