Soprano Maine Takeda has won second prize at this year's "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition" in Berlin, which is also the Federal President's Prize.
The singer was born in Osaka (Japan). She completed her Bachelor's degree in singing and Master's degree in opera at Geidai University in Tokyo. She was awarded the Acanthus Prize, the Matsuda Toshi Prize and the Douseikai Prize upon graduation. Since October 2020, she has continued her education at the Karlsruhe University of Music in the class of Prof. Hanno Müller-Brachmann in the Master's Singing and Soloist Examination Singing programmes.
To date, she has sung as a soloist in the St John Passion (Bach), "The Messiah" (Handel), "The Creation" (Haydn), Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler, the Magnificat by Rutter and the Requiem settings by Mozart, Fauré, Rütti and Rihm. In the field of opera, she sang Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) in 2015.
In 2021, she won first prize in the competition for the Rainer Koch Memorial Prize for the best interpretation of a work by Wolfgang Rihm. In November 2021, she was awarded first prize in the Heinz Kunle Competition for Vocal Ensembles. In 2022, she was a finalist in the cantateBach! international singing competition for church music in Greifswald. In 2023, she was awarded second prize at the Kulturfonds Baden e. V. "Bella Voce" competition. Since 2021 she has been a scholarship holder of Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now e. V. In 2022 she took part in the International Handel Academy Karlsruhe. At the final concerts she sang at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
Maine Takeda has been a freelance member of the SWR Vokalensemble since 2023.