The German soprano Simone Schneider is among the leading interpreters of the major Strauss and Wagner repertoire. With her radiant voice and exceptional expressive power, she has demonstrated her outstanding gifts in the youthful-dramatic Fach in roles such as Strauss’s Salome, the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten, Chrysothemis in Elektra, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Born in Hagen, Simone Schneider studied at the University of Music and Theatre Munich. While still a student, she became a member of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where she attracted particular attention in works of the modern repertoire.

Since 2006, she has been a permanent ensemble member of the Stuttgart State Opera, where she was awarded the title of Kammersängerin in 2015. There, she has appeared in numerous leading roles, including Sieglinde (Die Walküre) and Brünnhilde (Siegfried) in Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, Elsa (Lohengrin), the title roles in Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea, the Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), and most recently Salome in a production directed by Kirill Serebrennikov—an interpretation hailed as a sensation by both audiences and critics alike.

In addition to her engagements in Stuttgart, Simone Schneider has appeared as a guest at major opera houses such as the Vienna State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, Oper Leipzig, the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, Zurich Opera House, as well as the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Among her major successes are performances as Leonore (Fidelio), the Empress and Chrysothemis (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), and her widely acclaimed role debut as Brünnhilde in Siegfried.

In the concert repertoire, Simone Schneider performs regularly with leading orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Stuttgart State Orchestra, and the Staatskapelle Berlin. Her repertoire includes works by Beethoven, Mahler, Strauss, Verdi, Dvořák, Bruckner, and Mendelssohn. In both concert and opera performances, she collaborates with renowned conductors such as Franz Welser-Möst, Kent Nagano, Adam Fischer, Philippe Jordan, Semyon Bychkov, Axel Kober, Asher Fisch, Marek Janowski, and Ulf Schirmer, as well as Helmuth Rilling, Manfred Honeck, Philippe Herreweghe, Herbert Blomstedt, Hartmut Haenchen, and many others.