German-born Gun-Brit Barkmin is considered one of today’s most exciting singing actresses and finds herself in international demand for some of opera’s most complex characters including Salome, Marie (Wozzeck), Katerina Izmailova (Lady Macbeth of Mzsensk) and Emilia Marty (Věc Makropulos).

Salome has proved a pivotal role in Barkmin’s recent seasons with productions at Wiener Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, Prague Opera and Oper Stuttgart as well as in concert performance under Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and under Charles Dutoit with both Tokyo’s NHK Orchestra and at the 2017 Verbier Festival.

Expanding on an existing Wagnerian repertoire of Sieglinde and Elsa (Lohengrin), Barkmin sang her first Isolde (Tristan und Isolde) at Oper Graz in 2016 and, in August 2018, with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra under Asher Fisch, to great acclaim. In January 2018 she debuted as Brünnhilde (Götterdämmerung) with the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden as part of its Ring Cycle concert and recording project on the Naxos Label.

Demonstrating her impressive versatility and musicality, Gun-Brit Barkmin has also created the role of Elena in the world premiere of Sotelo’s El Público at Teatro Real Madrid under Pablo Heras- Casado, and appeared as both Guinevere in Birtwistle’s Gawain under Ingo Metzmacher. A recent successful debut at Opéra national de Paris as Marie under Michael Schønwandt followed Gun-Brit Barkmin’s highly acclaimed performance in Andreas Homoki’s new production of Wozzeck at Opernhaus Zürich under Music Director, Fabio Luisi (recently released on DVD).

At the outset of her career, Barkmin was a member of Komische Oper Berlin where her many roles included Ghita in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, Jenůfa in Willy Decker’s pivotal production, the Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, marking Harry Kupfer’s farewell to the Theatre, and Berg’s Marie. She has since gone on to cultivate strong relationships with several major European theatres including Wiener Staatsoper where, after her debut as Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes), she has received regular return invitations including as Sieglinde (Die Walküre), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Chrysothemis (Elektra), a role she has also performed as part of the BBC Proms under Semyon Bychkov and at the Bavarian State Opera in a Robert Carsen production, with Lothar Koenigs conducting.

In the summer of 2017 she delivered a brilliant performance of Regan in Aribert Reimann’s opera Lear under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst at the Salzburg Festival.
In the 2017/18 season, Barkmin debuted at Staatsoper Hamburg as Marie, conducted by Kent Nagano, returned to Wiener Staatsoper as Salome under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, sang Chrysothemis in the opening production of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the new home of Greek National Opera, portrayed the daughter in Hindemith’s Cardillac under Fabio Luisi at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and reunited with Charles Dutoit for further performances as Salome, this time with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of the 2018/19 season include performances at the Bavarian State Opera (Karl V. by Krenek) and again Salome at the Vienna State Opera.
In the 2019/20s season, Mrs Barkmin will return to the Hamburgische Staatsoper (as Marietta in Korngold’s ‚Die Tote Stadt‘), to the Bavarian State Opera and the Zurich Opera House (as Marie in ‚Wozzeck’), and she is going to portray Isolde at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy.

A consummate concert performer, Gun-Brit has performed Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Jakub Hrůša, Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with the Dresdner Philharmonie and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard, Schönberg’s Gurrelieder at the International Festival in Nagoya as well as Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde conducted by Andris Nelsons.

Gun-Brit Barkmin has been nominated as a Limelight Magazine International Artist of the Year 2018.

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