Turkish-German mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun is a graduate of Bloomington’s
Jacobs School of Music/ Indiana University and was a recent winner of the
Elizabeth Connel Prize 2022 and the Eva Marton Prize 2021. She was a
Member of the Young Artist Program of the Bavarian State Opera.
23/24 season includes: the season's opening of the Teatro Lirico in
Cagliari as Rubria in a new production of Boito's Nerone; a return
to the Dallas Symphony as Fricka and Waltraute in the Ring Cycle -
the first semi-staged concert version in US history - as well as a return
to the celebrated Barrie Kosky production at Komische Oper Berlin as Olga
in Eugene Onegin where she jumped in 21/ 22 in several
performances. Deniz proudly makes her debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus
Orchester in Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst
and with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Drei
geistliche Gesänge under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis as well as
with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra in Elgar’s Sea Pictures under the
baton of Róbert Farkas.
Highlights in Deniz’ 22/23 season include her debut at Müpa Budapest as
Waltraute in Götterdämmerung under the baton of Ádám Fischer; a
return to Opernhaus Zürich to debut as Luigia in Viva la Mamma
alongside Ambrogio Maestri; her role and house debut as Orlofsky in Die
Fledermaus at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova under the baton of Fabio
Luisi and her role debut as Una Donna in Nono's Intolleranza 1960
as the season opening at Komische Oper Berlin.
Passionate in the Lied- and concert genre, Deniz performed recently at
the revived Festival Capuchos 2023 in Portugal alongside pianist David
Santos with songs by Berlioz, Brahms, Korngold, Berg, Marx, A. Mahler,
Montsalvage and Gershwin. In the season 20/21 she gave three recitals
accompanied by pianist Yulia Levin titled „Opera goes Folk“ with songs by
Ravel, Schostakovic, Rodrigo and Kodaly as part of the Zurich Opera
House’s alternative program.
Highlights in previous seasons have included title roles such as Dido in
Dido and Aeneas at Teatro Massimo Palermo, Carmen at the
Landestheater Salzburg, Mascagni's Zanetto in a semi-staged concert
series in Switzerland, Hänsel in Hänsel and Gretel, L’Enfant in L’Enfant
et les Sortilèges, Ronja in Ronja die Räubertochter, Jacob
in Evers' Gold! as well as Zelim in Vivaldi's La Verità in
Cimento at Opernhaus Zürich.
Deniz is a former member of the ensemble of Opernhaus Zürich and
Komische Oper Berlin, where her roles included Sonyetka in Lady
Macbeth of Mzensk, Krista in Vec Makropulos, Bradamante in Alcina,
Emilia in Otello, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Ino in Semele,
Page in Salome, Lucilla in La scala di seta, Meg Page in Falstaff
and Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte.
In the past Deniz has performed a wide range of repertoire for
mezzo-soprano and contralto such as Florence Pike in Britten's Albert
Herring at Bayerische Staatsoper, a Liederabend with Tobias Truniger
at Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg with Srnka and Mozart songs, Rachmaninov
songs as part of the ballet Anna Karenina at Israeli Opera in Tel
Aviv, Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Jurmala Music Festival
in Latvia, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri, Ruggiero in Alcina
and Gertrude in Hänsel and Gretel with Indiana University
Opera and Ballet, Annina in La Traviata and Isabella in L'Italiana
in Algeri for children at Baden Baden Festspielhaus, Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony with Danish Radio Symphony, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and
Irish National Symphony Orchestra, Page in Salome with Dallas
Symphony, Third Maid in Elektra at Salzburger Festspiele and
Isaura in Tancredi at the Festival de Beaune.
Throughout the course of her career Deniz has worked with conductors
such as Fabio Luisi, Ádám Fischer, Franz Welser-Möst, Nello Santi, Simone
Young, Oksana Lyniv, Kirill Petrenko, Vladimir Jurowski, Jakup Hrůša,
Jérémie Rhorer, Vasily Petrenko, Markus Poschner, Gianandrea Noseda and
William Christie, as well as with directors such as Barrie Kosky, Calixto
Bieito, Robert Carsen, Andreas Homoki, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Krzysztof
Warlikowski and Marie-Ève Signeyrole.
April 2024