Christiane Karg is widely recognised as one of the most gifted and exciting sopranos appearing in opera houses and concert halls today.  Born in Feuchtwangen, Bavaria, she studied singing at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Heiner Hopfner and Wolfgang Holzmair, where she was awarded the Lilli Lehmann Medal, and at the Music Conservatory in Verona.  In 2009 she was named Young Performer of the Year by Opernwelt magazine, and the following year was awarded the prestigious Echo Klassik prize for her first Lied CD, ‘Verwandlung – Lieder eines Jahres’, accompanied by Burkhard Kehring. 

In 2006 she made an auspicious debut at the Salzburg Festival and has returned to sing Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice with Riccardo Muti and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Yannick Nezet-Seguin. She is a regular guest at the Theater an der Wien where she has sung Ismene in Mitridate, Telaire in Castor and Pollux and Hero in Béatrice et Benedict. 

In concert, Christiane Karg has recently appeared with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus Wien, Daniel Harding and the Dresden Staatskapelle on tour in the USA (Brahms Requiem), Mariss Jansons in Tokyo with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra (Beethoven Ninth Symphony), and Christian Thielemann at the Salzburg Easter Festival (Brahms Requiem).

Recognised as one of the world’s leading pianists specialising in lieder, Malcolm Martineau has worked with many of the world’s greatest singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Janet Baker, Olaf Bär, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Della Jones, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager, Magdalena Kozena, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Karita Mattila, Anna Netrebko, Anne Sofie von Otter, Frederica von Stade, Bryn Terfel, and others.

He has appeared throughout Europe (including London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Opera House; La Scala, Milan; the Chatelet, Paris; the Liceu, Barcelona; Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus; and his recording projects have included Schubert, Schumann and English song recitals with Bryn Terfel (for Deutsche Grammophon); Schubert and Strauss recitals with Simon Keenlyside (for EMI); the complete Fauré songs with Sarah Walker and Tom Krause; the complete Britten Folk Songs for Hyperion; the complete Beethoven Folk Songs for Deutsche Grammophon; the complete Poulenc songs for Signum; and Britten Song Cycles as well as Schubert’s Winterreise with Florian Boesch for Onyx.