Vita

Henriette Meyer-Ravenstein

I come from a family of lawyers in northern Germany and went through my musical socialisation in a children’s choir. Its activities involved month-long concert tours and performances at spectacular venues. Nevertheless, I didn’t really envision singing as a focus of formal study, so I began my musical training in Hanover as a pianist.

Coming into contact with singers as an accompanist, I ultimately opted to train as a vocal instructor with Prof Charlotte Lehmann after completing my piano diploma. I then spent more than 20 years in the independent scene, where I performed in concerts, independent opera productions and as a very active radio-choir singer at RiAS, NDR and BR. This was accompanied by teaching assignments in Hanover, immediately after my exams, later at the LMU Munich, the Mozarteum Innsbruck and the Munich University of Music. All of these activities provided a solid foundation for a varied and creative musical life in which I focused on early music and Lieder.

Together with my close friend and longstanding partner at the piano, Elisabeth Boström, I founded the KonzertAkt ensemble. Over the course of 10 years we developed new concepts for chamber music theatre in collaboration with actors, dancers and directors. These stage productions brought together our enthusiasm for the Lied genre and our joy in acting in support of their dramatization.

In 2005, I was appointed a professor of singing at the HfMDK in Frankfurt. In addition to my work there, I also worked as a voice coach at the Värmlands Opera in Sweden and gave masterclasses at various locations, including an annual vocal teacher training programme for South Tyrolean music schools. Leading up to my own appointment in Frankfurt, I took singing lessons myself with various teachers. I owe much of what I learned to Karl-Heinz Jarius, Beata Heuer, Eugen Rabine and Sami Kustaloglu. I have never tired in my search for the techniques that would bring me closer to the secrets of singing. Initially prompted by a severe vocal crisis at the time of my first theatre auditions, this search continues today. This includes the many opportunities I have to continue learning through the wide range of programmes and exchanges with colleagues at the HfMDK. The diversity of aptitudes and talents, but also the problems in dealing with the up-and-coming generation of artists and teachers, fascinates me anew every day.

The official end of my tenure at the HfMDK in Octobre 2023 frees up my capacity to now engage in new activities, such as voice-coaching the Landesjugendchor Hessen and teaching private students individually and in workshops.