CHRISTINA ASCHER, contralto, studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.Mus.) and the Juilliard Music School (M.S.). She received a Kathryn Rudd Grant from the Metropolitan Opera.

She also attended the Herbert Berghof Studio and participated in many crossover projects, for example at the Actors Studio. Her first professional work in New York included solo vocal parts in stage productions with choreographers Martha Graham and John Neumeier.

After fulfilling opera contracts at the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Dallas Civic Opera, Ascher went to Europe where she sang leading roles at opera houses in Berlin, Bonn, Graz, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Munich, Oldenburg, Zurich, Vienna and many other cities.

Until the mid-1980s, she specialized in the bel canto of Mozart, Rossini, Strauss, occasionally also singing Wagner. Since then she has become renowned as a dedicated and uncompromising interpreter of modern music and modern musical theatre. Ascher debuted with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1986 and London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999.

Modern composers esteem her vast skills — thorough, intelligent musicianship; an unusually flexible, versatile voice; a feeling for text and drama; a total personal identification in performance; and an ability to think creatively.  Her extraordinary talents have been the inspiration for new works by top modern composers.

She also is an improviser and a composer and creator of music projects involving dancers and actors. These live music elements of dance theatre programs include projects with Petra Lehr (Co.Lab.TanzTheater, Frankfurt) and the Butoh dancer Sabine Seume.

Ascher has given master classes and seminars for singers and composers in the United States and Europe.

She is a member of the American Music Center, International Alliance for Women in Music, the New York Composers Circle, The Modern Vocalist and New York Singing Teachers’ Association.