Henriette Gödde
Highlights in Henriette Gödde’s 2020-2021 season of vocal performances include two renewed collaborations with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra: at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw she will sing Franz Schubert’s Mass in E flat major conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth. In addition, under the baton of Peter Dijkstra she will participate as soloist in Frank Martin’s “In terra pax” at the TivoliVredenburg concert hall in Utrecht. Henriette is likewise looking forward to singing Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” at the Arsenal in Metz with Le Concert Lorrain (conducted by Stephan Schultz), as well as at Konzerthaus Berlin with the Berliner Singakademie (conducted by Achim Zimmermann). In 2021, Henriette Gödde gives her début performance at the Bachfest in the Leipzig Gewandhaus in Georg Philipp Telemann’ “Messias” with the Merseburger Hofmusik conducted by Michael Schönheit.
Henriette Gödde studied voice with Prof. Christiane Junghanns at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden, where she received valuable counsel in the discipline of art song from the renowned baritone Olaf Bär, graduating with honours in the specialties of Lied and concert singing. She currently lives with her family in Leipzig.
The young contralto Henriette Gödde has made herself a name as a concert soloist in a great number of German and international venues. Her repertoire not only comprises the cantatas, oratorios, and passions of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries, but also spans the great 19th-century oratorios and many other outstanding vocal works leading up to current contemporary music. She has made appearances at the Auditorium in Lyon (France), the Megaron in Athens, the Bachfest in Dresden, the Handel Festival in Halle, the Dresden Music Festival, and the IMPULS New Music Festival in Saxony-Anhalt.
Gödde has often been invited to perform with renowned orchestras and ensembles including Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Camerata Salzburg, Capella Augustina (Andreas Spering), the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Gaechinger Cantorey (Hans-Christoph Rademann), the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Athens State Orchestra, Stiftsbarock Stuttgart (Kai Johannsen), Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Virtuosi Saxoniae (Ludwig Güttler). She has collaborated with further eminent conductors of the likes of Axel Kober, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Christoph Poppen, Helmuth Rilling, Jaap van Zweeden, Leonard Slatkin, and Jörg Peter Weigle.
Henriette Gödde has also made a great number of guest appearances in German and Austrian opera houses. Her most recent operatic performance was in the role of Third Lady in “The Magic Flute” for the Sankt Margarethen Opera Festival under the baton of Karsten Januschke. In 2019, she returned to Leipzig Opera, covering the role of Erda in Richard Wagner’s tetralogy for the first time, under the baton of Ulf Schirmer. In the 2018/19 season, she sang Schwertleite (“The Valkyrie”) in Magdeburg under the baton of Kimbo Ishii. Henriette Gödde has made further guest appearances in the opera houses of Weimar, Halle, and Erfurt. In 2014, she sang her début at Salzburg Festival as part of the Young Singers Projekt.
A growing number of CD recordings showcase Henriette Gödde’s elevated artistic standards. Most recently, she appeared on the cpo label, singing the part of the Queen in Bernhard Marx’s 19th-century oratorio “Mose” with Camerata Lipsiensis and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Chorus conducted by Gregor Meyer. Further CDs shall be released in the course of 2021, including the world première recording of Anton Schweitzer’s “Die Auferstehung Christi” and the same composer’s “Missa brevis” with the Thüringen Bach Collegium.
Henriette Gödde cultivates the Lied genre with a passion; she performs art song-recitals all over Germany accompanied by her duo partner Prof. Michael Schütze, and has received a number of awards and distinctions for her interpretations of Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, and Hugo Wolf. Gödde won First Prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, the Lied Prize at the DEBUT Competition in Weikersheim, 2nd Prize at the German National Voice Competition in Berlin (Bundeswettbewerb Gesang), and 1st Prize at the International Sacred Music Competition in Rome.
September 2021