In a short period of time, the Philadelphia-born soprano has been the recipient of many awards and honors. Besides being a winner of a Liederkranz Foundation Award and the Friedrich Schorr Memorial Performance Prize in Voice, she was awarded the Alberto Vilar Scholarship from the American Berlin Opera Foundation and the Franz-Josef-Weisweiler Stipendium from the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Future engagements for Robin Johannsen in 2005-2006 include her debut at the Leipzig Opera singing Gretel in Hänsel and Gretel, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Marzelline in Fidelio, and Blonde in a premiere of Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Ms. Johannsen will also return to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as a guest artist singing the role of Amalia in Aribert Reimann’s Das Schloß. The soprano has also been invited to sing in numerous concerts during the 2005-2006 season, including an “Evening of Beethoven and Weber” with the festival Musica Mallorca and concerts of operetta arias and duets with the chamber orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In the summer of 2006, Ms. Johannsen will reprise the role of the Waldvogel in the Bayreuther Festspiele’s new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann.

During the summer of 2003, Ms. Johannsen made her debut at the Bayreuther Festspiele, singing the part of the young Shepherd in Tannhäuser. She returned to Bayreuth in the summer of 2004 singing the role of the Shepherd, and adding the Waldvogel to her repertoire, and appears again in the Festival’s Tannhäuser during the summer of 2005.

In addition to her operatic engagements, Ms. Johannsen has been a featured soloist in numerous concert performances. Recent concerts include Candide at the Berliner Philharmonie (Paquette), the Gala-Abend 50 Jahre Yad Vashem at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducted by Israel Yinon; a benefit concert of Mozart and Donizetti selections at the Konzerthaus Berlin under the baton of Yves Abel; as well as a tour in Kaliningrad, where she sang the role of the Countess in a concert version of Matthus’ Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke. In June 2004, Ms. Johannsen performed in Mendelssohn’s Sommernachtstraum with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the baton of Marek Janowski. She was also featured in the Deutsche Oper’s televised and radio broadcast “9. Festliche Operngala für die AIDS Stiftung,” conducted by Christian Thielemann, alongside such world-renowned artists as Agnes Baltsa, Montserrat Caballé, and Thomas Quasthoff.

During the 2001-2002 season, Ms. Johannsen appeared in a gala concert at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and performed in several concerts in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. That season, she also debuted the roles of Adele in Die Fledermaus, Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Gilda in Rigoletto. In the United States, she has performed with companies such as the Opera Orchestra of New York, the Pine Mountain Music Festival, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Opera Outreach.

After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Ms. Johannsen completed a Masters Degree in Music from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. In addition to operatic and orchestral repertoire, Ms. Johannsen has a strong affinity for musical theater and operetta, in which she has portrayed many characters including Guenevere in Camelot, Rosabella in Most Happy Fella, Marian in The Music Man, Nellie in South Pacific, and Yum-Yum in The Mikado.