Christianne Stotijn - About

A dream has come true: together with my pianist Joseph Breinl, I have always wanted to record the most stirring songs of Schubert, Berg and Wolf based on a theme of magic and imagination. Thanks to BBT I have been able to realize this dream, for Onyx Records, at Potton Hall in Suffolk a wonderful place to record. It’s such a challenge to find somewhere to record a CD where there is supportive teamwork to enable space for creative inspiration. I spent the most wonderful days recording my first CD and I am now fully engaged in thinking of a new challenge for a second disc. BBT has helped me enormously for which I am very, very grateful.

Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn clearly sums up the start of her journey with BBT in the above quote, and she did indeed go on to make a similarly acclaimed second recording for Onyx with the Trust’s support; Urlicht, an album of songs by Gustav Mahler with pianist Julius Drake.

As well as leading operatic roles, Christianne has premiered a range of new works and is a passionate interpreter of art songs. She is consistently praised for her warm expressive voice and outstanding facility for languages that further enhances her powers of storytelling. She performs on the world’s concert stages with internationally renowned orchestras and conductors and was profoundly influenced by Bernard Haitink, a special relationship she described to camera for a BBT short film. Her voice coaches have included Udo Reinemann – she has been Artistic Director of the Udo Reinemann International Masterclasses in Brussels since 2013 – and Dame Janet Baker, with whom she was able to further extend her personal coaching with the support of her BBT award. Christianne also participated in the 2006 BBT showcase tour in Aldeburgh, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Vienna, led by Christian Tetzlaff.

Christianne was supported with a BBT Award between 2005 and 2009.

For a current biography please visit christiannestotijn.com or brinksartists.nl

Read a blog by Christianne, El Duende, here

Photographs by Marco Borggreve