Anne Schwanewilms was born into a musical family at Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr, but studied gardening before training as a singer with the great German bass Hans Sotin in Cologne. (Gardening remains her favourite relaxation, and between engagements she is creating a new garden with her husband Heinz at their lakeside home near Berlin). She learned her craft between 1991 and 1996 as a member of the Cologne Opera ensemble, and began as a mezzo, singing, among other roles, Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. Ten years ago it became clear that her voice was settling into a soprano.

Her first soprano role was Gutrune in Götterdämmerung, for the 1996 Bayreuth Festival Ring, and she quickly came to specialise in the German Romantic soprano repertory, stunning English audiences at Glyndebourne in the title role of Weber's Euryanthe (2002) and, under Simon Rattle, as Elettra in Idomeneo (2003). She was a thrilling Senta in Wagner's Fliegende Holländer and other successes included Sieglinde and Leonore (Fidelio). In 2002 she was named Singer of the Year by the prestigious German magazine, Opernwelt. Around this time, the voice was becoming lighter, and she decided to give up roles like Senta, Leonore and Sieglinde, and concentrate on the lyrical heroines of Strauss, one of whom, Chrysothemis in Elektra, she had already performed with success at Covent Garden and La Scala. She sang in Strauss's late comedy, Die Liebe der Danae, in Dresden in 2005, and her first Marschallin was received with huge acclaim at the Lyric Opera, Chicago, in January 2006. She will add Arabella to her repertory in 2009 and has begun a long term exploration of the huge, rich repertory of Strauss songs, both with piano and orchestra.

The voice remained as dramatic as ever. Anne still loves to sing Strauss's Ariadne (Covent Garden, 2004; Madrid, 2006), Verdi's Desdemona, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Elsa in Lohengrin, and Marie. She has been a spectacular star in the recent revival of early 20th century operas by Franz Schreker: Der Ferne Klang (Berlin, 2001) and Die Gezeichneten (Salzburg Festival, 2005). She made her American debut as Marie at Santa Fe (2001), going on to sing Beethoven's Leonore in Dallas (2002) and the Verdi Requiem in New York (2005) before her triumph in Chicago.

As an artist with an exceptional, natural gift for communicating with audiences, Anne enjoys concert work as much as opera. She has sung with, among many, the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Concertgebouw, London Symphony, French National and Halle orchestras, and with conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnayni, Mark Elder, Kent Nagano, Kurt Masur, James Levine and Semyon Bychkov. Her orchestral repertory includes symphonies by Mahler, Mendelssohn and Zemlinsky and the orchestral songs of Strauss, especially the Four Last Songs. Among operas she has performed in concert is Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, in which she doubled up as both Mother and Witch, bringing the house down at the Barbican Centre in London by turning her music stand into a broomstick.

She loves to share and project the drama of words and music for audiences in smaller recitals, and gave her first Liederabend, of Strauss and Mahler songs in January 2006 in Barcelona. She works with two of the leading British accompanists, Roger Vignoles and Malcolm Martineau, and has recorded a Strauss collection with Vignoles which was nominated as Vocal recording of 2008 by BBC Music Magasine.