© Paula Winkler
Faculty

Univ.-Prof.

Allison Oakes

Univ.-Prof. for Solo VoiceDepartment Vocal Studies

Allison Oakes is one of the most sought-after dramatic sopranos on international stages today. She studied singing as a mezzo-soprano in Germany with Kammersänger Prof. Gudrun Fischer, but began her operatic career as a youthful dramatic soprano straight after her studies.

After three years of permanent engagement at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, she is constantly working as a freelancer at many major international opera stages and concert halls, such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Bayreuth Festival, the Hamburg State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, the Deutsche Oper and the Berlin Philharmonic Semperoper Dresden and the Leipzig Opera, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Teatro Massimo Palermo, the English National Opera, London and the BBC Philharmonie, La Fenice Venice and Teatro dell' Opera di Roma, the Cologne Opera and the Frankfurt Opera, and many other theaters in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, Greece, Norway and Hungary, the Netherlands, USA and Great Britain. During this time she has worked with leading conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Christian Thielemann, Vladimir Jurowski, Donald Runnicles, Kent Nagano, Alain Altinoglu, Marek Janowski, Jeffrey Tate, Omer Meir Wellber, Alexander Soddy, Adam Fischer and Sebastian Weigle. Allison Oakes has given various recitals with English folk songs, German art songs and orchestral songs such as the Four Last Songs by Strauss and Wagner's Wesendonk songs. She won several first prizes at international singing competitions.

Before Allison Oakes began studying singing, she completed a degree in the medical field. As a Diagnostic Radiographer, she has extensive anatomical knowledge, which provides a useful foundation in her singing lessons and masterclasses for opera studios. From the winter semester of 2024, she will be a professor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, where she is happy to pass on her technical skills and her wealth of experience.