Kristen Witmer

The American-Korean soprano Kristen Witmer focuses on music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. She has worked with famous conductors such as Peter Dijkstra, Philippe Herreweghe, Rudolf Lutz, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Joshua Rifkin and Masaaki Suzuki and has performed as a soloist with early music ensembles including Vox Luminis, the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, Sette Voci, the Czech group Collegium Marianum and the B’Rock Orchestra.

She appears regularly at the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht and at the Boston Early Music Festival and has also appeared at international music festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Tbilisi Baroque Festival and the Bachfest Leipzig.

Highlights of the 2025/26 season include(d) Handel’s Messiah with the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht under Johannes Leertouwer, concerts at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and her return with Vox Luminis under Lionel Meunier to the Salzburg Festival.

She enjoys a long-standing collaboration with the Netherlands Bach Society, with which her performances include Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Magnificat under Shunske Sato at the Bremen Music Festival and Bach’s St Matthew Passion under Hans-Christoph Rademann on tour, along with participation in the project All of Bach, which has set itself the goal of recording all Bach’s works and releasing them worldwide free of charge.

Her other recordings include the 2023 album Misteri Gloriosi with the Ensemble La Fenice under Jean Tubéry; and Of Death and Resurrection featuring works by Leonhard Lechner with the Capricornus Ensemble Stuttgart (Coviello), and Italophilia with The Counterpoints (Challenge), both released in 2024.

Kristen Witmer grew up in Japan and at the age of 14 made her solo debut in Handel’s Messiah. She studied classical singing at the Tokyo University of the Arts and early music at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with Peter Kooij, Michael Chance and Jill Feldman. She is a prize-winner of numerous international competitions and received a scholarship from the Meiji Yasuda Cultural Foundation.