Death of soprano Ursula Zehnder
Her family has announced that the Swiss soprano Ursula Zehnder died in Bern on October 11, 2024 at the age of 92.
She was a pupil of Jakob Stämpfli, Elisabeth Grümmer and Elsa Cavelti. Between her concert diploma in 1966 and 1995, she was one of the leading Swiss singers of her generation. She has performed as a soloist with all the major Swiss orchestras, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as with numerous choirs in Switzerland and abroad. She has worked with conductors such as Horst Stein, Charles Dutoit, Armin Jordan and Peter Maag.
Her repertoire ranged from Purcell to the present day, with a focus on the great oratorio roles of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Dvořák, Brahms and Verdi. As a lieder singer, she devoted herself primarily to late romantic and modern lieder and premiered and recorded numerous works by Swiss composers.
For family reasons, Ursula Zehnder only performed in concert in the field of opera. She was the mother of five children and lived in Riggisberg and Bern.
