Biography

Roswitha Müller began her vocal studies with Christiane Hampe at the Karlsruhe Conservatoire and subsequently studied with Kurt Widmer in Basel, where she obtained her teaching and performance diplomas with distinction.

She pursued further studies with Margreet Honig in Amsterdam, Hartmut Höll in Zürich, Bodil Guemoes in Kopenhagen und Dunja Vejzovic in Stuttgart.

Roswitha Müller was a prize winner at various competitions. Both the Yamaha Europe Foundation and the Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation in Bern awarded her first prize.

She accumulated her professional experience as a concert and opera singer with a host of renowned conductors such as Gennady Roshdestvensky, Howard Griffiths, Johannes Kalitzke, Jonathan Nott, Hans Martin Linde, Jürg Wyttenbach, Rudolf Lutz, Ed Spanjaard und Simon Gaudenz. She has sung with well-known ensembles including the Tonhalleorchester, Collegium Novum Zürich, the Limburg Symphony Orchestra, the Freitagsakademie, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Musica Rara in Milan, La Fontaine, Camerata Variabile Basel, Capriccio Basel and Camerata Schweiz, amongst others.

The mezzo-soprano’s broad repertoire stretches from the Renaissance, through baroque, classical and romantic oratorios, an extensive repertoire of Lieder and 20th century chamber music, right up to contemporary music and world premieres.

Roswitha Müller has performed at the following festivals: Berliner Festwochen (Berio Folksongs), Bregenzer Festspielen (Swiss premiere of works by Jorge E. Lopez, 2010), Young European Festival at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Martinu Festtagen in Basel, the Tagen für Neue Musik Zürich (world premiere of works by Klaus Huber), the Bachstiftung Trogen, the International Bachfest Schaffhausen and the Lucerne Festival.

On the concert platform she gave performances of Mahler’s ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’ with the Neuss Chamber Academy and Berlioz’s ‘Les Nuits d’Eté’ with Camerata Schweiz. She sang Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John’s Passions in Maastricht and gave concerts of Wagner’s ‘Wesendoncklieder’ and H. Suter’s ‘Le Laudi’ with the Novosibersk Symphony Orchestra.

On the opera stage she has sung at the Lucerne Theatre in Monteverdi’s 8th Book of Madrigals and in Wolfgang Rihm’s ‘Jakob Lenz’. She interpreted the role of Ottavia in ‘L’Incoronazione di Poppea’ with the Munich ensemble ‘cos`i facciamo’ at the Dresden Semperoper. She was Cherubino in a production of Mozart’s ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and appeared as Bradamante in Handel’s ‘Alcina’ in Neuchâtel and Bern. The Pocket Opera in Zurich engaged her in 2007 and 2009 for Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘The Mikado’ und ‘The Gondeliers’ under Howard Griffiths.

As a recitalist Roswitha Müller has performed with the pianists Gérard Wyss, Hans Adolfsen, Kelvin Grout and, more recently, with Valentina Pfister, at many well-known concert venues.

She has participated in radio broadcasts and made many CD recordings, for example Fanny Hensel’s Lieder (for the label ‘troubadisc’) and works by the Dutch composer Rudolf Escher (for ‘ottavo’).

Since 2005 Roswitha Müller has taught vocal studies at the Hochschule der Künste and the Musikschule Konservatorium in Zurich. She lives in Basel and in Tuscany.