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The Dutch mezzo-soprano Anja Wilbrink made her debut as Dido in Dido and Aeneas with the Netherlands Chamber Opera.
She later performed other roles with the same company,
singing the roles of Mercedes in Carmen and Second
Lady in Die Zauberflöte, which also toured in Germany and Switzerland .For five years Anja Wilbrink was a member of an a-capelle quartet “Femmes Vocales” with which she performed staged scenes in concert-form in theatres throughout the country.
This successful group also made several television appearances and performed regularly on national radio. The quartet also made two well-received cd’s.
During this period, Anja Wilbrink worked on the creation of several new works (with, amongst others, Louis Andriesen and Hans Rotman). She also sang at the festival ‘Dutch Music Days’ with the famous conductor Reinbert de Leeuw.
Since then Anja Wilbrink has appeared regularly as a soloist in concerts including Mozart’s Mass in c-minor, has performed in many oratorias such as Bach’s St.Matthew's Passion and St.John's Passion, and Hándel’s Judas Maccabeus.
With her father ( the famous baritone and member of the Bavaria State Opera, Hans Wilbrink ), Anja performed Das Italienisches Liederbuch by Hugo Wolf, which was later recorded and released on cd.
In 1995, Anja joined the full-time chorus of the Vlaamse Opera,
since when she has been heard in several roles, including productions of Puccini's Suor Angelica (Suor Dolcina) under Silvio Varviso, Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten (Drei Dienerinnen, Fünf Kinderstimmen) under Stephan Soltesz, Massenets Cendrillon (Six Esprits) under Marc Minkowski and Jenufa (Pastuchyña) under Friedemann Layer and directed by Robert Carsen. Later Anja was asked to appear in the same role in this production on tour, culminating in the Saito Kinen Festival under the baton of Seji Ozawa.
In 2003 she started a period for further study, concerts, recitals. She appeared in the opera 'Socrate' by Eric Satie.
In 2005 she recorded a cd together with pianist Reinout De Smet and cellist Jeroen Geene with lullabies from all over the world and
in 2006 she recorded the first symphony "In die Ruh' der Seele' by her husband Wim Zwaag, with the Nürnberger Symphoniker and Hans Rotman conducting.
Later, in 2007, she started lessons with vocal-coach
James J Mc Cray (coach of Eva Maria Westbroek and Frank van Aken a.o.) and changed from a lyric - into a drammatic mezzosoprano.
Anja is now preparing several roles:
Ulrica , Azucena, Eboli, Amneris ( Verdi)
Fricka, Erda, Waltraute ( Wagner)
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