ABOUT
Mezzo soprano Marta Herman's singing has been described by Opernglas as “extraordinarily beautiful and well-managed”; a voice with an “impressively warm, soulful, mezzo sound” (OMM), whose “great vocal flexibility and distinctive timbre are enchanting” (Die deutsche Bühne).
Marta's current schedule includes debuts as Erda in Wagner's Das Rheingold with the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal, and as the Alto Soloist in Mahler's Symphony No. 3 at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
Other recent and future engagements include Erste Norn / Die Götterdämmerung, Schwertleite / Die Walküre, and Waltraute / Die Walküre (as well as covers of Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, and Waltraute / Die Götterdämmerung) in Benedikt von Peter's new Ring cycle at Theater Basel under the baton of Jonathan Nott; a return to Oper Leipzig as Grimgerde / Die Walküre; Schwertleite / Die Walküre and Floßhilde / Das Rheingold + Die Götterdämmerung in Wuppertal, and the leading role of Anastasio in Vivaldi's Il Giustino, as well as Dritte Dame / Die Zauberflöte, at Theater Luzern. She recently returned to Staatstheater Kassel making her debut as Polina in Pique Dame, reprising Erste Norn, Grimgerde, and Floßhilde in the Ring Cycle, and portraying Blanka Zmigrod, a victim of far right extremist violence, in an interdisciplinary music/theatre production entitled Operation Abendsonne, created with director Christiane Pohle.
After her studies at the University of Toronto, Marta's first engagement in Germany was as a member of the Oper Frankfurt Young Artist Program. She then became a house soloist at Staatstheater Kassel, where she was the recipient of the Fördergesellschaft Prize 2019, which recognizes outstanding artistic achievement by a young artist. Marta's repertoire in Kassel included Suzuki / Madama Butterfly, Bradamante / Alcina, Erste Norn / Die Götterdämmerung, Floßhilde / Das Rheingold + Die Götterdämmerung, Grimgerde / Die Walküre, Hänsel / Hänsel und Gretel, Brigitta / Die tote Stadt, Cherubino / Le nozze di Figaro, and Dritte Dame / Die Zauberflöte. In addition to Bradamante, Marta's repertoire in Kassel also featured other leading roles in a series of rarely performed baroque operas under the baton of baroque specialist Jörg Halubek: Emone / Antigona (T. Traetta, 1772), Tierra / Los Elementos (A. de Literes, 1718), and Alto Solo in B.A.C.H (staged Bach cantatas).
Since making her Wagner debuts as Erste Norn, Grimgerde, and Floßhilde in the new Kassel Ring cycle by director Markus Dietz and conductor Francesco Angelico 2018-2020, she has sung 3 different Walküren (Schwertleite, Grimgerde, and Waltraute) in 10 productions of Die Walküre. She made her debut at Oper Leipzig as Grimgerde in 19/20, returning in 20/21, 21/22, and 23/24, and in 2022 made her debut at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in the same role, in a new Ring cycle directed by Brigitte Fassbaender. Other operatic engagements include Dutch National Opera for Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tiresias, the Landestheater Salzburg as Linetta in Haydn's Il mondo della luna, Bradamante / Alcina at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Dritte Dame / Die Zauberflöte at Staatstheater Braunschweig, and return engagements at Oper Frankfurt as Zweite Dame / Die Zauberflöte, Third Nymph / Rusalka, and multiple roles in Martinu's Julietta.
The music of the 20th and 21st centuries also holds an important place in Marta's repertoire; she has performed contemporary works at renowned venues, including the Darmstadt International New Music Festival, the Tonhalle Zürich, the tonArt Festival Esslingen, with Stuttgart's celebrated ExVoCo Ensemble, and in Canada with The Music Gallery Toronto, Tapestry New Opera, the U of T New Music Festival, and the Toy Piano Composers Collective, as well as having created leading roles in the world premieres of operas for the Toronto Luminato Festival and Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg. She regularly performs in the critically acclaimed new music concert series, Neue Musik der Nachkriegszeit in Mainz, Germany, and has brought Tales of Love, Murder and (other) Nonsense, a unique recital program of her own curation which combines baroque and new music for voice and guitar, to several recital series including Harbourfront Summer Music and Hart House Concerts, both in Toronto.
Marta is a first-generation Polish-Canadian born in Toronto, Canada, and studied at the University of Western Ontario with Torin Chiles and the University of Toronto Opera School with Mary Morrison.
