Whether in roles by Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi or with songs of Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg: With her voluminous, nuance-rich mezzo-soprano and her clear, natural diction, the Hamburg born singer senses in every figure an authentic tone that builds a connection to her audience.
Highlights in Okka von der Dameraus career so far were her debut as Ortrud (Lohengrin) at the Stuttgart State Opera, Ulrica in Un ballo in Maschera under the baton of Zubin Mehta at the Bavarian State Opera and her participation at the Bayreuth Festival in Frank Castorf's Ring. Also her concerts with Zubin Mehta as Waldtaube in Schönberg's Gurrelieder, as well as alto soloist in Gustav Mahler's Lied von der Erde and in Mahler's II and III Symphony under Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko and Antonio Pappano were celebrated by the audience and the press.
A very special experience was an audience concert in the Vatican for Pope Benedict XVI in 2011. In Munich she was celebrated for her Waltraute (Götterdämmerung), Erda (Rheingold, Siegfried) and Charlotte (The Soldier / Alois Zimmermann) under the baton of Kirill Petrenko, but also as Brangäne (Tristan and Isolde) under the baton of Simone Young.
Okka von der Damerau regularly works with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Most recently, the mezzo-soprano made her debut as Brangäne with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst and performed with the Munich Philharmonic under the baton of Valery Gergiev.
In 2015 she made her debut at La Scala in Milan, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2016, and most recently at the Vienna State Opera and the Semperoper Dresden.
Recent and future projects are, among others, her role debuts as Azucena (Il Trovatore) at Theater St. Gallen and Bavarian State Opera, as well as Fricka (Die Walküre) at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam.
Other engagements will lead Okka von der Damerau to the Teatro Real Madrid, the Metropolitan Opera New York and again to the Vienna State Opera.
In the 2018/19 season, the singer has been heard on the concert stage with Lili Boulanger's Psalm CXXX under the baton of Edward Gardner at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Kirill Petrenko, and at the Philharmonie Berlin with Staatskapelle Berlin in Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.
Okka von der Damerau dedicates herself to the song with great passion, therefore she received great attention in 2017 for the recording of Frank Martin's song cycle Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke with the Philharmonia Zurich under Fabio Luisi.
Okka von der Damerau won the Special Prize of the Jury at the 2006 International Vocal Competition for Wagnerian Voices in Venice. In 2013 she received the Festival Prize of the Munich Opera Festival.
