The special propensity of Ingrid Schmithüsen’s art of singing has applied to lied, oratorio and to the newer repertoire performed in close collaboration with contemporary composers. Already as a student at the Cologne Conservatory, the native Aachener succeeded in uniting these seemingly diverse genres and styles with ease. To explore all expressive possibilities of the voice, to dicover its originality and to tread new paths: these were the inspiration given by Ingrid Schmithüsen’s teachers Gregory Foley and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Her extensive discography pays tribute to this artist’s unique style and constant endeavor to enrich her palette of expression in a many-faceted repertoire ranging from Monteverdi, Bach, Mozart, Schubert to Wolf, Berg and Debussy.
Ingrid Schmithüsen credits the long standing artistic collaboration with pianist and chamber musician Thomas Palm, the Cherubini Quartet, the Auryn Quartet, the Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble Köln, with harpsichordist Gerald Hambitzer, as well as with II Concerto Köln, Musica Antiqua and Bach Collegium Japan, Massaki Suzuki conducting.
She has sung in Quebec with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Ensemble Kore, Les Idées heureuses and with pianist Marc Couroux at the Société André Turp. She is a regular guest at the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), Walter Boudreau conducting, notably in the context of the festival Présences de Radio France in Paris in 1999. In the year 2000, Schmithüsen went to Israel and Australia for the Year of Bach with the Boys’ Choir of Windsbach, Karl Friedrich Beringer conducting.