Dorothee Mields

Soprano Dorothee Mields rose to prominence through her interpretations of both Baroque and contemporary repertoire, earning the description “unflappable at any tempo” from Forbes. Born in Gelsenkirchen in the industrial Ruhr valley on April 15, 1971, she pursued German training that began at the University of Bremen under Harry van der Kamp, continued independently in Stuttgart with Julia Hamari, and extended through later study with Richetta Manager while she was already performing. Her concert and recording schedule expanded swiftly in the early 2000s. Festival appearances have included the Bachwoche Ansbach, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Flanders Festival in Bruges, while her contemporary-music profile was confirmed by her 2007 Salzburg Festival debut in Gérard Grisey’s Quatre Chants.

Most of her discography centers on Baroque works. The first CPO release, a 2002 set of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel chamber cantatas, was followed in 2004 by a second volume of that composer and by C.P.E. Bach’s Gellert Oden. After a four-year interval she recorded for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Accent, and Carus in addition to further CPO projects; Accent issued the Telemann secular-cantata collection O woe! O woe! My canary is dead! Subsequent projects have explored thematic programs, lesser-known composers, the Classical era via Boccherini’s Stabat Mater, and Polish-language Chopin songs, along with Purcell in English. In 2018 Accent released her album of Christoph Graupner cantatas, Lass Mein Herz.

Innovative chamber presentations have featured Lord Nelson at the River Nile, drawing on multiple composers’ responses to that historical figure, and White as Lilies Was Her Face, pairing Heinrich Heine texts with John Dowland settings. Contemporary composers performed include Grisey and Pierre Boulez. Activity continued through the COVID-19 pandemic with Accent and CPO releases of Telemann, followed by the 2023 Audite album On Byrd’s Wings: William Byrd and His Circle and the 2024 Brilliant Classics recording J.S. Bach & D. Shostakovich: Salvation with the G.A.P. Ensemble. Mields has served on the faculties of the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague and the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Weimar.