“Singing, interpreting and taking the audience away from their everyday lives is the greatest happiness for me. It gives me the feeling of coming home.”
Denise Seyhan’s well-managed dramatic voice captivates with its richness of colour and unmistakable timbre. Thanks to her great openness and enormous enthusiasm, she can also empathise well with unusual directorial concepts.. ‘She is an outstanding singer and a wonderful stage actress’ (Elias Grandy).
The German-Turkish mezzo-soprano completed her training after studying singing at the Karlsruhe University of Music, initially with Gabriele Kniesel. After two changes of fach, her voice quickly developed into the dramatic fach thanks to her many years of collaboration with Walter Donati and Anna Rita Esposito, through whom she learnt the Italian singing technique (“Alte Schule”).
After her first engagements as Dorabella and Hänsel, she soon sang her first dramatic role under the musical direction of Johannes Witt: the Knusperhexe in ‘Hänsel und Gretel’. The MiR Gelsenkirchen engaged her for the leading female role in the world premiere of ‘Konrad oder Das Kind aus der Konservenbüchse’ by Gisbert Näther. This was followed by further important engagements as Ulrica (‘Un ballo in Maschera’), Amneris (Aida), Fricka (‘Walküre’ and “Rheingold”), Maddalena (‘Rigoletto’), 3rd Lady (Magic Flute).
From autumn 2022 to March 2023, she performed Mrs Peachum (‘Dreigroschenoper’), Old Lady and Paquette in ‘Candide’ by L. Bernstein, Erda, Fricka (“Rheingold”) and Flosshilde in ‘Ring an einem Abend’ at the Megalomania Theatre in Frankfurt am Main.
She has made guest appearances at Theater Pforzheim (3rd Elf, ‘Rusalka’), Theater Giessen (Birsen Güner, ‘Gegen die Wand’), Theater Heidelberg (Dora K., ‘Benjamin’) and Theater Brandenburg, where she played the 1st Magd in the highly acclaimed Elektra production in 2024. She also sang this role in her first opera recording, a complete recording of Elektra, which was released in March 2025 on the classical label ‘Solo Musica’.
In addition to her work as an opera singer, she gives concerts at home and abroad.
Highlights were the ‘Elijah’ on the occasion of 125 years of Hymnus Chorknaben in the Liederhalle Stuttgart (2025), Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Franco-German friendship in the Cathédrale de Reims (France) and a concert tour with the West Saxon Symphony Orchestra through Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Her extensive concert repertoire ranges from Bach, Mozart and Handel, to Pergolesi, Saint-Saëns, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Verdi, to contemporary repertoire such as the St Luke Passion by Klaus Rothaupt.
She has been giving regular recitals since 2011 and is particularly fond of songs by female composers. Together with pianist Heike Bleckmann, she was first engaged as ‘Duo L’Ivresse’, later ‘Bleckmann & Seyhan’, several times with various programmes, including as part of the ‘European Culture Days Karlsruhe’ in 2018 and 2021. 2018 in cooperation with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe with a programme about Ethel Smyth.
In 2020 she was a finalist in the ‘Prix Atelier d’exellence’ (focus on Italian opera), in 2020 and 2024 she was a semi-finalist in the NYIOP competition, and in the ‘Nuovo Canto’ competition in Milan in the ‘Wagner voices’ category.
Denise Seyhan arbeitet mit Dirigenten wie Elias Grandy, Yura Yang, Rainer Johannes Homburg, Marcus Merkel und mit RegisseurInnen wie Ingo Kerkhof, Kristina Wuss, Catherine Miville. She studies her games with Rainer Armbrust, Marius Zachmann, Alessandro Pràtico and the renowned coach Margaret Singer (†2023).
She received important impulses in masterclasses from Alexia Voulgaridou, Alessandro Amoretti, Elias Corrinth, Neil Barry Moss, Mario Andersen, Gabriele Wiesmüller, Kleesie Kelly and Anna Reynolds, among others.
She discovered her passion for making opera and song videos in 2020 and presents a multi-faceted portrait of her artistic personality and work with her showreel. Together with song pianist Philip Dahlem and actress Michelle Brubach, she founded the ensemble “Die Mimusen” in summer 2021. Together they filmed the song cycle ‘Sieben frühe Lieder’ by Alban Berg and produced the musical theatre evening ‘Die rosa Gefahr’ about the lives of six female composers, with which they have since performed throughout Germany. Click here for more information: The Mimuses.
Since 2002 she has enthusiastically given singing lessons and voice training in the areas of classical, pop, rock and musical for professionals and amateurs..

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