Professional career

Monika Frimmer studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover in Hannover. She studied further in master-classes and worked with Birgit Nilsson

Birgit Nilsson

right|thumb|Nilsson in 1948.Birgit Nilsson was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works...

, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE was a German-born Austrian/British soprano opera singer and recitalist. She was among the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf.-Early life:Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike...

 and Jörg Demus

Jörg Demus

Jörg Demus is an Austrian pianist.At the age of six, Demus received his first piano lessons. Five years later, at the age of 11, he entered the Vienna Academy of Music, studying piano and conducting. He graduated in 1945, then 17 years old...

. In 1980 she was a winner in the national competition Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin.

She was a member of the ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover

Staatsoper Hannover

Staatsoper Hannover is an opera house and opera company in Hanover. It is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.During the course of its season from September to June, Staatsoper Hannover mounts productions of a variety of operas from the standard operatic repertoire as well as 20th century...

 as a lyric soprano

Lyric soprano

A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre which can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have...

 from 1980 to 1993. In 1982 she appeared as Anima in a scenic production of Emilio de' Cavalieri

Emilio de' Cavalieri

Emilio de' Cavalieri was an Italian composer, producer, organist, diplomat, choreographer and dancer at the end of the Renaissance era. His work, along with that of other composers active in Rome, Florence and Venice, was critical in defining the beginning of the musical Baroque era...

's Rappresentazione di Anima a di Corpo in the Marktkirche

Marktkirche

The Marktkirche , officially Marktkirche S. Georgii et Jacobi, dedicated to St. George and St. James, is the main Lutheran church in Hanover. It was built in the 14th century and, together with the nearby Old Town Hall, is considered the southernmost example of the "North German brick gothic" ...

, conducted by Hans-Martin Linde

Hans-Martin Linde

Hans-Martin Linde is a noted virtuoso flute and recorder player of baroque and early music.He authored a number of original and highly instructive books on the flute and recorder respectively....

. She sang the part of Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos

Ariadne auf Naxos

Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...

of Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...

. In the opera Sly

Sly

-People:* Sly Stone , American musician and frontman for Sly & the Family Stone* Sylvester Stallone , American actor* Sly Bailey , British businesswoman, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, UK's largest newspaper publisher, and non-executive director of EMI* Sly Dunbar , Jamaican drummer* Sylvain...

of Ermann Wolf-Ferrari, revived by the Opera Hannover, she appeared as Rosalina. Since 1993 she has worked as a free-lance singer in opera, oratorio and Lied

Lied

is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...

.

In 1987 Frimmer sang in a recording of Buxtehude's Membra Jesu nostri

Membra Jesu Nostri

Membra Jesu Nostri , BuxWV 75, is a cycle of seven cantatas composed by Dieterich Buxtehude in 1680, and dedicated to Gustaf Düben. The full Latin title Membra Jesu nostri patientis sanctissima translates to "The most holy limbs of our suffering Jesus". This work is known as the first Lutheran...

, conducted by Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman is a conductor, organist and harpsichordist.Koopman had a "classical education" and then studied the organ , harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam...

, with Barbara Schlick

Barbara Schlick

Barbara Schlick is a German soprano who is particularly admired for interpretations of the concert literature of the baroque era.-Career:...

, Michael Chance

Michael Chance

Michael Chance CBE is an English countertenor.Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After growing up as a chorister he attended Eton College, Berkshire, and later King's College, Cambridge...

, Christoph Prégardien

Christoph Prégardien

Christoph Prégardien is a German lyric tenor whose career is closely associated with the roles in Mozart operas, as well as performances of Lieder, oratorio roles, and Baroque music...

, Peter Kooy

Peter Kooy

Peter Kooy is a Dutch bass singer specialized in baroque music.- Biography :Peter Kooy started his musical career at 6 years as a choir boy. However he started his musical studies as a violin student...

, the Knabenchor Hannover and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra

Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir

The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir is a Dutch early-music group based in Amsterdam.The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir was created in two stages by the conductor, organist and harpsichordist Ton Koopman. He founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 1979 and the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in...

. In the Neustädter Kirche, Hannover, she sang in choral concerts, in 1996 Ein deutsches Requiem, and in 1988 Stravinsky's Cantata

Cantata (Stravinsky)

The Cantata by Igor Stravinsky is a work for soprano, tenor, female choir, and instrumental ensemble , and was composed from April 1951 to August 1952. The premiere performance on 11 November 1952 was by the Los Angeles Symphony Society , conducted by Stravinsky himself...

and Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. In 1991 she performed there Bach's St Matthew Passion in the last concert conducted by Erhard Egidi, together with Dantes Diwiak

Dantes Diwiak

Dantes Diwiak is a tenor, who grew up and has worked mostly in Germany.- Professional career :Dantes Diwiak studied singing with Klaus Kirchner and opera at the Musikhochschule Hannover with Theo Altmeyer. He took master classes with Hermann Reutter, Birgit Nilsson, Helmuth Rilling and Scot Weir...

, Anselm Richter, Ralf Popken and Joachim Gebhardt. In 1998 she recorded Bachs St Matthew Passion with the Thomanerchor

Thomanerchor

The Thomanerchor is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. At present, the choir consists of 92 boys from 9 to 18 years of age...

 and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, conducted by Georg Christoph Biller

Georg Christoph Biller

Georg Christoph Biller is a German choral conductor, conducting the Thomanerchor since 1992 as the sixteenth Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach...

. She has been a soprano soloist in the cycles of Bach cantata

Bach cantata

Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....

s of both Gustav Leonhardt

Gustav Leonhardt

Gustav Leonhardt is a highly renowned Dutch keyboard player, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. Leonhardt has been a leading figure in the movement to perform music on period instruments...

 and Masaaki Suzuki

Masaaki Suzuki

is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan.He was born in Kobe to parents who were both Christians and amateur musicians...

. With Leonhardt she also recorded Bach's Easter Oratorio

Easter Oratorio

The Easter Oratorio , BWV 249, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, Kommt, eilet und laufet , first performed in Leipzig in 1725.- History :...

and Ascension Oratorio, with Suzuki Bachs Christmas Oratorio

Christmas Oratorio

The Christmas Oratorio BWV 248, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 incorporating music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a...

.

In 2002 she founded together with Christa Bonhoff

Christa Bonhoff

- Professional career :Christa Bonhoff was born in Westphalia. Sie studied singing at the Hochschule für Musik Hamburg with Annie Schoonus. Already as a student she joined the choir NDR Chor and worked as a guest for the Hamburgische Staatsoper...

, Dantes Diwiak

Dantes Diwiak

Dantes Diwiak is a tenor, who grew up and has worked mostly in Germany.- Professional career :Dantes Diwiak studied singing with Klaus Kirchner and opera at the Musikhochschule Hannover with Theo Altmeyer. He took master classes with Hermann Reutter, Birgit Nilsson, Helmuth Rilling and Scot Weir...

 and Peter Kooy

Peter Kooy

Peter Kooy is a Dutch bass singer specialized in baroque music.- Biography :Peter Kooy started his musical career at 6 years as a choir boy. However he started his musical studies as a violin student...

 a quartet Tanto Canto to sing rarely performed music a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

, with piano or with ensemble. The quartet recorded in 2005 excerpts from the collections Augsburger Tafel-Confect (short for: Ohren-vergnügendes und Gemüth-ergötzendes Tafel-Confect, in English: Augsburg Table Confectionery, Pleasuring the Ears and Delightful to the Soul) of the composers Valentin Rathgeber

Valentin Rathgeber

Johann Valentin Rathgeber was a German composer, organist and choirmaster of the Baroque Era.His father, an organist, gave him his first music lessons...

 and Johann Caspar Seyfert

Johann Caspar Seyfert

Johann Caspar Seyfert was a German composer, violinist and lute player.He was a music director in Augsburg. In 1746 he added a fourth volume to the Augsburger Tafel-Confect, which Valentin Rathgeber had published in 1733, 1737 and 1739...

. She has collaborated regularly with the Trio di Clarone and the Ensemble Incanto. Her piano accompanist for Lieder is Liese Klahn.

External links

• Website von Monika Frimmer Website (in German)
• Monika Frimmer on Bachwoche Ansbach (in German)