Born in Husum, Schleswig-Holstein, soprano Nadja Mchantaf first pursued a successful ten-year career as a competitive tournament dancer, winning numerous championships, before turning to vocal studies in Leipzig.

In 2009, Nadja Mchantaf began her operatic career as a member of the ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden. There, she celebrated major successes, including the title role in the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s final opera Gisela!. In the years that followed, she took on numerous lyric soprano roles, among them Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Musetta (La bohème), Micaëla (Carmen), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Venus (King Arthur), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Princess Eudoxie (La juive), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Valencienne (Die lustige Witwe), Tebaldo (Don Carlos), the Fifth Maid (Elektra – CD recording with Deutsche Grammophon), Lucilla (Il tutore), Lidotschka (Moskau, Tscherjomuschki), and Morgana (Alcina).

In 2016, Barrie Kosky, then Artistic Director and Chief Stage Director, brought Nadja Mchantaf to the Komische Oper Berlin, where she remained an ensemble member until 2024. At this house she made her debut in the title role of Massenet’s Cendrillon, in a production by Damiano Michieletto and under the baton of Henrik Nánási. Other standout role portraits there included Rusalka (Rusalka), Tatjana (Eugene Onegin), Mimì (La bohème), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), The Child (L’enfant et les sortilèges), Erinice (Zoroastre), Micaëla (Carmen), Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Saffi (Der Zigeunerbaron), Jenny Hill (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), and Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice). With the Mozart roles Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) and the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), she debuted in new productions by Kirill Serebrennikov.

Guest engagements have taken Nadja Mchantaf to Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Teatro di Roma as Hanna Glawari (Die lustige Witwe), to Teatro Regio di Parma as Jenny Hill (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), and to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, to the Volksoper Vienna, and to the world premiere of Musicbanda Franui’s Der Zigeunerbaron remake Das Lied vom Rand der Welt during the Johann Strauss 2025 celebrations, as Saffi.

She appeared with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon as soloist for their New Year’s Concert, and has also performed at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Oper Frankfurt, Oper Leipzig, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Staatsoper Hannover, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, with the Shanghai Symphony, and at the Beijing Music Festival.

In 2023, Nadja Mchantaf sang Freia (Das Rheingold) under the baton of Kent Nagano in a historically informed performance practice with Concerto Köln and the Dresden Music Festival Orchestra, with performances in Dresden, Cologne, Ravello, and Lucerne. In the same year, she appeared at the Edinburgh Festival as the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro).

The versatile artist has built a broad repertoire that spans both concert and art song literature. She has worked with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Frizza, Kent Nagano, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Stefano Montanari, Peter Schneider, Constantin Trinks, Asher Fisch, Ludwig Güttler, Tomáš Netopil, Frédéric Chaslin, and Stefan Soltesz.

Most recently, she returned to her former home company, the Semperoper Dresden, as Michal in Handel’s Saul, and will make her house debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the 2025/26 season as Marie in Zar und Zimmermann.