Helena Köhne

German contralto Helena Köhne was awarded the Prize for Best Dramatic Voice at the 2024 Ebe Stignani International Singing Competition in Imola. She studied singing at the Hamburg Conservatoire with Klaus Bülow and at Berlin University of the Arts with Jutta Schlegel, obtaining her diploma in 2003 before continuing her vocal development with Ruthild Engert. She has been a scholarship holder of the Walter Kaminski Foundation, a semi-finalist at the German Federal Singing Competition and a prizewinner at the Hanns Eisler Competition for her interpretation of contemporary music. In 2021 she made a successful debut at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden as Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, and as Schwertleite in Die Walküre, returning to these roles in 2024 in Wiesbaden and at the Internationale Maifestspiele. Her repertoire includes Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande, Klytämnestra in Elektra, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia, Adelaide in Arabella, Wesener’s Mother in Die Soldaten, the Nurse in Boris Godunov, Annina, Filipjevna, Marthe Schwertlein and Mistress Quickly. She has appeared at theatres including Nuremberg, Münster, Dessau, Dijon, Caen, Cologne, Kiel, Wiesbaden, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Kaiserslautern, Görlitz, Oldenburg, Weimar and Rostock. She is also active as a concert singer, performing works by Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Frank Martin and Mahler.