Anne-May Krüger

Biography

Anne-May Krüger’s work is marked by its variety and scope, both on and behind the stage. The mezzo-soprano has appeared internationally as an acclaimed performer especially of contemporary music. She is also active as a librettist and holds a doctoral degree in musicology from the University of Basel.

Born in Berlin/Germany, Anne-May studied at the University of Music Karlsruhe, as well as with Rudolf Piernay. Early in her career she appeared at the State Opera in Stuttgart, and has been a guest artist with the Nationaltheater Mannheim and Theater Basel, among others. Since 2012, she has been a frequent guest at the Lucerne Festival, premiering music-theater productions from Alfred Zimmerlin, Michael Wertmüller, Mike Svoboda, and Michel Roth. A recording of Michel Roth’s mono-opera Im Bau was released in December 2019 by the label WERGO. Further collaborations include, among others, composers Kurt Schwertsik, Manos Tsangaris, Andreas Eduardo Frank, and Hans Tutschku and the South African artist William Kentridge.

Anne-May Krüger works with groups such as ensemble recherche (Freiburg), Ensemble Ascolta (Stuttgart), Ensemble Phoenix Basel, and the Mondrian Ensemble (Basel). Together with Christian Zehnder, she has been a guest singer with Ensemble SoloVoices (Basel), performing Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Stimmung at Lucerne Festival, Stockhausen-Stiftung Kürten, Festival "Imago Dei" (Krems) and ENSEMS (Valencia). Anne-May is a member of the ensemble æquatuor (Basel/Zürich) and Infinity Quartett (Basel). Opera productions have led to collaborations with conductors Bernhard Epstein, Michael Wendeberg and Titus Engel, as well as with stage directors Georges Delnon, Hendrik Müller, Massimo Rocchi, Johannes Schmid and Joachim Schlömer. She is a regular guest at renowned festivals, particularly for new music, such as "Wien Modern" (Vienna), "ZeitRäume Basel", "Rümlingen Festival" (CH), "MaerzMusik" (Berlin), "London Ear", "NUNC" (Northwestern University/Evanston) and "Contempuls" (Prague).

In 2021 her first libretto for Mike Svoboda's chamber opera Die Katze, die ihre eigenen Wege ging after Rudyard Kipling's The Cat Who Walked By Himself was premiered at Landestheater Linz/Austria. She is currently working on a new libretto Adam und Eva, based on Peter Hacks’s play by the same name which will be set to music by Mike Svoboda. The piece, a commission of the Schwetzinger Festspiele/Germany in cooperation with the Landestheater Linz/Austria, will be premiered in 2025.

As a musicologist, Anne-May’s activities focus on new music performance practice. From 2011 to 2021 she was part of the research department at the Hochschule für Musik Basel, where, in 2018 she has also started teaching. Currently, she is in charge of the development of two new Masters programs. Since fall 2020, she has also held the position of a lecturer at the department for musicology at the University of Basel. Her articles have been published in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Dissonance, PFAU, Laaber-Verlag and at Brepols Publishers Turnhout. She has been invited for presentations and lecture performances Europe-wide. In 2022 her dissertation Musik über Stimmen was published at Wolke Verlag Hochheim. Anne-May’s doctorate was funded by the Swiss National Funds.

In 2021 she founded, together with composer and sound performer Andreas Eduardo Frank, the duo frKRr. Their first program what you see – is what you get – is what you hear was premiered to great acclaim in Basel/Switzerland in April 2021, featuring compositions for voice, video and electronics by Paul Clift (world premiere) and Andreas Eduardo Frank as well as Luc Ferrari’s Monologos I for voice and tape machines. Their new program Music for Unicorns was premiered in 2022 and includes a collective creation with composer and performer Chloé Bieri as well as a new composition by Mike Svoboda.