The South African-born contralto Freya Apffelstaedt was a participant in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project in 2021 and subsequently joined the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House, where she appeared in roles including Grimgerde (Die Walküre), Sœur Mathilde (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Amastre in Handel’s Serse.
Her recent engagements have included Schwertleite (Die Walküre) at La Scala, Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Bayreuth Festival and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Mrs Quickly (Falstaff) at Theater Bielefeld, Second Norn and Flosshilde (Götterdämmerung) at the Bühnen Bern and Jane Kennedy in the world premiere of Brett Dean’s Of One Blood at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
Engagements in the 2026/27 season will include Dryad (Ariadne auf Naxos) at La Monnaie in Brussels and Third Lady (Die Zauberflöte) at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
Freya Apffelstaedt has collaborated with famous ensembles such as the Basler Münsterkantorei, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
She has won prizes including a special prize at the international DEBUT singing competition and third prize at the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin in 2020. In 2023 she was a finalist at the Tenor Viñas Singing Competition in Barcelona.
Freya Apffelstaedt studied at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich with Lars Woldt and Daniela Sindram. She has received scholarships from the Federal Republic of Germany and the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation.
