German mezzo-soprano Maria Hegele is a graduate of the Royal College of Music’s International Opera Studio, where she studied under the tutelage of Dinah Harris and Veronica Vesey-Campbell. Prior to this, she studied with Barbara Bonney at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, graduating with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. She is a Samling Young Artist, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, Heidelberger Frühling Scholar and Imogen Cooper Music Trust Scholar.

The season 2025/26 will see Maria’s debut at Staatstheater Darmstadt as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel and her return to the Volksoper Wien to create the role of Olga Zelenka in Lass uns die Welt vergessen, a new opera reconstructed from fragments of Jara Beneš’s Gruß und Kuss aus der Wachau and to reprise the role of Mercédès in Carmen. She will appear with Hofkapelle München in Salieri’s La Grotta di Trionfo at the Tage Alter Musik in Herne, perform Haydn’s Stabat Mater with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under Willem de Vriend, and appear in various concerts linked to her 2nd prize at the 2025 International Haydn Competition among others.

Recent engagements include Orlofsky/Die Fledermaus, Zweite Dame/Die Zauberflöte, Sängerin in Nurejews Hund, and Mercédès/Carmen at the Volksoper Wien, as well as her debut as Annio/La clemenza di Tito with Staatskapelle Halle at the Goethe Theater Bad Lauchstädt. She has performed Haydn’s Theresienmesse at the Styriarte Festival, Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Zürcher Singakademie, and Bach’s Matthäus-Passion with the Noord Nederlands Orkest.

From 2022 to 2024, Maria was a member of the Volksoper Wien’s newly founded opera studio, where she sang a diverse range of roles including Hänsel, Sandmännchen/Hänsel und Gretel, Dorabella/Così fan tutte, Tisbe/La Cenerentola, Flora/La Traviata, Ede/Die Dreigroschenoper, and several characters in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias.

At the same time she has also made significant debuts at prestigious venues: at the Bregenzer Festspiele in the world premiere of Éna Brennan’s Hold Your Breath, at the Gluck Festspiele in Nürnberg as Annio/La clemenza di Tito, and at the Staatsoper Berlin as Frasquita/Carmen, conducted by Bertrand de Billy, Giovanna/Rigoletto, a Slave in Salome with François-Xavier Roth, and Second Handmaid of Dirce in Médée.

Earlier stage experience includes roles such as Eduige/Rodelinda, Tolomeo/Tolomeo, Hélène/La Belle Hélène, Nerone/L’incoronazione di Poppea, Concepción/L’heure espagnole, Lisetta/Il mondo della luna, Hermia/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Niklausse/Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Cherubino/Le nozze di Figaro. She also participated in the world premiere of Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel at the 2016 Salzburg Festival, conducted by the composer.

Maria’s concert repertoire spans from Vivaldi and Pergolesi to the oratorios of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. She has performed at prestigious venues including the Gasteig and Herkulessaal in Munich, and Müpa in Budapest. A passionate recitalist, she regularly appears in Austria and Germany.

Her recordings include a 2020 SWR session featuring works by Paul-Willot Förster, Samuel Barber, Kurt Weill, and Aaron Copland.

She is a laureate of several prestigious competitions: 1st prize at the 2022 August Everding Competition, 2022 Hidalgo Liedpreis, and the 2018 Claude Debussy Chamber Music Competition; 2nd prize and ECMS Prize at the 2025 International Haydn Competition; 3rd prize in the 2021 Lies Askonas Competition; and 4th prize and Best Sacred Aria at the 2022 Mozart Singing Competition. She was a finalist and prizewinner at the 2025 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition in Dublin and a finalist at the 2023 Cesti Competition in Innsbruck.

Maria is grateful for the support of the Walter und Charlotte Hamel Stiftung Hannover and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.