Austrian mezzo soprano Daniela Lehner studied in Vienna, Salzburg and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She received scholarships to study on the Ravinia Festival Young Artists Programme, Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme and the Music Academy of the West. Prizes include a Georg Solti Scholarship, Rotary Prize, Prize of the Académie Musicale de Villecroze, and First Prize in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition. She received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2008 and is currently a member of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme.

A committed recitalist, Daniela has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Wigmore Hall, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, De Singel Antwerp, the Klavier Festival Ruhr, Kölner Philharmonie, as well as the Aldeburgh Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Chichester Festival and Oxford Lieder Festival. She has worked with leading pianists such as Mitsuko Uchida, Graham Johnson and Roger Vignoles. Since 2005 Daniela works closely with pianist José Luis Gayo. Apart from conventional repertoire, the duo also enjoys exploring lesser known German, Spanish and Latin-American works.

Also passionate in community projects, the Lehner/Gayo duo participates in "Live Music Now" (founded by Yehudi Menuhin and Ian Stoutzker with the support of Musicians Benevolent Fund) and has given workshops and performances to UK’s welfare, educational, justice and health sectors who have limited access to classical music-making.

In 2008, Daniela made her Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut, singing the role of Hermia in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In recording, she has recently participated in Graham Johnson's complete Schumann song recordings for Hyperion Records.

Daniela recently made her debut at Wiener Konzerthaus with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra singing Handel and Mozart. Future engagements include concert with Ulster Orchestra, Mozart Requiem with Sir Colin Davis in Barcelona, recordings with the BBCSSO and BBCSO, recital with Roger Vignoles in Atzenbrugg, Villa-Lobos with Tai Murray and a solo recital at the City of London Festival, and appearances at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and Austrian Cultural Forum in London.

Daniela Lehner is represented by Intermusica worldwide (excluding Germany and Austria).

July 2010 / 351 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.

Recital at the Linz European City of Culture / pianist José Luis Gayo
Landesmuseum, Linz
"...Mezzo soprano Daniela Lehner and her pianist José Luis Gayo: An exceptional voice and an exceptional creative talent…a magic moment!"
Balduin Sulzer, Kronenzeitung, January 2009

BBC New Generation Artists Recital / pianist José Luis Gayo
Brinkburn Festival
“Young she may be in terms of singers, but Lehner already has a maturity of voice that takes her from limpid lyricism to dynamic, intense highs all with the clearest of diction and engaging characterisation.”
Thomas Hall, July 2008

Recital at the Chichester Festival / pianist José Luis Gayo
Vicars’ Hall, Chichester
“…a colourful presentation of four songs by Schubert, in which two highly individual techniques were immediately unveiled. Responsive and supremely artistic pianism was matched with dynamic voice, bursting with intense expression and emphatic diction, at times challenging Vicars' Hall's acoustic.”
John Wheatley, Chichester Chronicle, July 2008

Recital for the Kirckman Concert Society / pianist Lada Valesova
Wigmore Hall, London
“It was clear… that she is an exceptional talent, which was heard to telling effect in a set of songs by Basque composer Jesus Guridi who died in Madrid on 7 April 1961 at the age of 74. Guridi studied in Paris, Brussels and Cologne and left a wide variety of music from operas to organ works, much of it based on Basque themes. His Seis Canciones Castellanas proved a real find. This cycle dates from 1939 and consists of settings of folk poems from the Castile region which in Daniela Lehner’s splendid performance made a deep impact.

Mark my words: Daniela Lehner is a mezzo-soprano deserving of a major international career.”
Robert Matthew Walker, Musical Opinion, June 2007

Engel Lund Book of Folk Songs
Lieder Theatre London / Austrian Embassy
“Daniela Lehner, an exceptional Austrian mezzo, is also a star of the future. She recently made her recital debut at Carnegie Hall and here she brought distinction to a group of charming Austrian songs, especially Die zwei Rosen. Her voice is beautifully placed, well supported and with a highly individual timbre.”
Brendan G Carroll, Opera Now, December 2006

Arsamene in Handel Serse / cond. Christian Curnyn
Cheltenham Festival & Guildhall School of Music and Drama
“Daniela Lehner…as Arsamene, in love with Romilda, brings real pathos to her sombre arias, yet can also pack a vocal punch when moved to anger, or when railing against the tyranny of love…”
Hilary Finch, The Times, July 2003