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. In 2008 she received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award was a member of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme.
Daniela’s recent symphonic engagements include Mozart and Handel arias with the Wiener Kammerorchester at Wiener Konzerthaus and with the BBC Ulster Orchestra, Berio Folk Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Diego Masson, Zemlinsky and Wolf with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Takuo Yuasa, Spanish songs and Zarzuela with the BBC Concert Orchestra under Matthew Coorey, and Shostakovich songs with the Bruckner-Orchester in Austria.
A committed recitalist, Daniela has appeared at the Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Wigmore Hall, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, De Singel Antwerp, the Klavier Festival Ruhr, Kölner Philharmonie, as well as the Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Chichester, City of London, Oxford Lieder, Danube and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festivals. 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 dedicated to 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.
Highlights in 2010/11 include Zemlinksy Maeterlinck Lieder with the BBCNOW under Kazushi Ono, Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the London Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, Mozart Requiem under Sir Colin Davis in Barcelona and with the BBC Philharmonic under Juanjo Mena, Zarzuela arias and Spanish songs with the BBCSO and Josep Pons, and Mahler Lied von der Erde and Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Ensemble Berlin Counterpoint at Philharmonie Berlin.
Daniela Lehner is represented by Intermusica worldwide (excluding Germany and Austria).
October 2010 / 419 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream / LSO / Cond. Bernard Haitink / Barbican
"In the fairy ensembles there was some delightful singing – every word crystal-clear, the tuning sweet, the timbres aptly delicate – from… Daniela Lehner."
Richard Morrison, The Times, June 2011
Ramiro / La Finta Giardiniera / Academy of Ancient Music / Barbican & Théâtre des Champs-Élysées / Cond. Richard Egarr
“Daniela Lehner’s spirited and effective performance as Ramiro proved just how well this role, originally written for a castrato, can work for a mezzo-soprano.”
Sam Smith, Music OMH, June 2011
“Daniela Lehner is an excellent mezzo soprano, whose beautiful aria serio ‘Va pure ad altri in bracchio’ in the third act was underscored by a deeply engaged orchestra.”
Alain Zürcher, Chanteur, June 2011
BBC Lunchtime Recital / pianist Roger Vignoles
Wigmore Hall, London
“…it’s wonderful to see what a star she’s turning into…
she was one of the first singers in the New Artists Series that runs there (Austrian Cultural Forum) as a London platform for the best talent emerging from Vienna… and she was fiercely recommended by Christopher Raeburn, the late doyen of Decca record producers who handled everyone from Sutherland to Bartoli and accordingly knew a great female voice when he heard one. When I heard her for the first time I remember being knocked sideways by what she could do… it had extraordinary distinction: full and rich and glorious. Pure Class.
As the programme rolled on through sequences of Wolf, Zemlinsky, Guastavino and Ginastera, the voice opened out, and there was everything you could want: excitement, fire, attack - and above all the smooth, rich and substantial colouring of a potentially great voice, which she certainly knows to use to advantage. She tells the story of a song as though her life depended on it. And given a text that unfolds in a strongly characterised manner, she;s in her element - delivering the detail with relish and rising to whatever grand gestures the music and text demand.”
Michael White,
Daily Telegraph, January 2010
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