Yajie Zhang · Hartmut Höll

The Karlsruhe University of Music would like to thank Ms. Yajie Zhang for taking over the concert evening at short notice.

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)

Geschichte von einem »fahrenden Gesellen« in vier Gesängen
Gedichte von Gustav Mahler
Urfassung für Gesang und Klavier (1885)

Kindertotenlieder
von Friedrich Rückert
Urfassung für Gesang und Klavier (1901–1904)

„Der Abschied“
aus „Das Lied von der Erde“
Gedichte von Mong-Kao-Jen und Wang-Wei mit teilweiser Benützung der Bethgen’schen Übertragung
Urfassung für Gesang und Klavier (1908)

Yajie Zhang mezzo-soprano
Hartmut Höll piano

Yajie Zhang has been a member of the Leipzig Opera ensemble since the 2022/23 season. Her roles in Leipzig include Hänsel in Humperdinck's "Hänsel und Gretel", Suzuki in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly", Flora in "La Traviata" and the Page in "Salome". In the 2020/2021 season, Yajie Zhang returned to the Bavarian State Opera, of which she was a member until 2022, as Tisbe in Gioacchino Rossini's "La Cenerentola" and in Frank Castorf's production of Braunfels' "Die Vögel," as well as in new productions of Georg Friedrich Haas' opera "Thomas," in "Parsifal" by Richard Wagner, "Der Freischütz" by Carl Maria von Weber and in "Das schlaue Füchslein" by Leoš Janáček. She made her debut at the Bavarian State Opera as Drossel in the new production of Walter Braunfels' "Die Vögel," a role she also interpreted at the Cologne Opera. In Munich, she also appeared as the Zaubermädchen in "Parsifal," the Dryade in Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and the Kitchen Boy in Dvořák's "Rusalka." Yajie Zhang made her operatic debut back in 2013 as Maddalena in Verdi's "Rigoletto" with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Since then, engagements have taken her to the Staatstheater Braunschweig, the Theater Trier and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing, where she most recently appeared as Nicklausse/Muse in Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann" under Pinchas Steinberg and as Cherubino in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro".

With recitals - often with her Lied partner Hartmut Höll - she has given guest performances at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Berlin's Pierre Boulez Hall, the Philharmonie St. Petersburg and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Beijing.

In 2019, she sang Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the China Philharmonic Orchestra under Yu Long at the Beijing Music Festival, followed by a spectacular appearance with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste performing Mahler's "Rückert Lieder." She appeared at the Shanghai Baroque Festival with the Shanghai Camerata under David Stern. She opened the 2020/21 season with concerts at the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts with works by Zemlinsky and Mahler with musicians of the Bavarian State Orchestra and Peter Hirsch.

Yajie Zhang is a laureate of numerous competitions, including the DEBUT Classical Singing Competition 2018 as well as the competition "Das Lied" in Heidelberg 2019, the Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition at Teatr Wielki Warsaw and the Portofino International Opera Competition. She had already attracted great attention in 2017 as the youngest participant of the s-Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition, when she won the Grand Prix as well as the Opera Prize and the Junior Jury Prize. She was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Foundation and the Lied Academy Heidelberger Frühling.

Born in Anhui (China), Yajie Zhang studied in Shanghai and Hanover. Since 2021, she has been expanding her training at the Karlsruhe Liedklasse with Prof. Dr. h.c. Mitsuko Shirai und Prof. Hartmut Höll.

Horst Günter (1913–2013) was a renowned singer and singing teacher. In the course of his long life, he compiled a library that includes books and other writings on singing from four centuries and is probably unique in the world in its claim to be encyclopedic. Singing treatises from the 17th to the 19th century, many in valuable first editions, singing lexicons, studies in singing science and medicine, and biographies of singers are united here in a collection which, because of its unity, has the character of a scientific study library.

Through the mediation of Horst Günter's student Thomas Hampson, the university was able to acquire this treasure trove of books, which will from now on be publicly accessible as the "Horst Günter Library" in one of the Kavaliershäuser. Parts of the older collection will also be digitized. 

The library is the heartpiece of a planned center for vocal research, which aims to promote a lively dialog between science and practice.