Swiss soprano Rachel Harnisch’s 2009 highlights included her debut in Dresden as the ‘Contessa’ (“The Marriage of Figaro”) and many concerts: Mahler IV conducted by Jeffrey Tate in Palermo, the Nelson Mass conducted by Roberto Abbado in Florence, Mozart’s “Requiem” in Turin and Bolzano, Pergolesi concerts conducted by Claudio Abbado in Bologna and Jesi, Haydn’s “Creation” in Zurich, “Messiah” concerts in Bern and the St. Cecilia Mass in Geneva. 2010 she will be heard in Toulouse as ‘Pamina’ and will sing in Mahler IV in Winterthur.

Rachel HARNISCH made her debuts as ‘Pamina’ (“The Magic Flute”) in Bern conducted by Miguel Gomez-Martinez and in Zurich conducted by Franz Welser-Möst in 2000. At the Grand Théâtre de Genève she debuted as ‘Micaela’ (“Carmen”), conducted by Cyril Diederich.

In 2001, she sang her first ‘Zerlina’ (“Don Giovanni”) conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Zurich, and enjoyed great success in “L’amour de loin” by Kaija Saariaho in Bern. She sang ‘Pamina’ in Bern as well as in a new production of “Die Zauberflöte” in Santiago, Chile, in 2002. In 2003 she sang ‘Mélisande’ (“Pelléas et Mélisande”) in Bern, made her debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in the part of ‘Marzelline’ (“Fidelio”), sang ‘Xenia’ (“Boris Godunov”) in Geneva and a new production “The Magic Flute” in Marseille.

2004 she made her debut in the part of ‘Fiordiligi (“Così fan tutte”) conducted by Claudio Abbado in Ferrara, Modena and Reggio Emilia, sang ‘Micaela’ in Berneand Avenches, made her debut at the Paris Opéra-Bastille in the Part of ‘Pamina’ in the Bob Wilson production “The Magic Flute”, conducted by Jiri Kout, and sang her first ‘Sophie’ (“Der Rosenkavalier”) conducted by Stefan Soltesz in Essen.

In 2005 she sang in two new productions of “The Magic Flute”: in Reggio Emilia, Ferrara and Baden-Baden conducted by Claudio Abbado, and in Athens conducted by Sir Neville Marriner. In 2006 she made two very successful debuts: in the part of the ‘Contessa’ (“The Marriage of Figaro”) in Verona and Reggio Emilia and in the part of ‘Konstanze’ (“Abduction from the Seraglio”) in Brussels. After “The Magic Flute” in Madrid, conducted by Sir Colin Davis, she sang another new production in Turin in December, conducted by Fabio Biondi.

In 2007 she sang ‘Contessa’ (“The Marriage of Figaro”) in Bern, made her debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin as ‘Pamina’, her debut at Glyndebourne Festival in the part of ‘Fiordiligi’,  her operatic debut at Teatro alla Scala in the part of ‘Nermin’ in the world premiere of “Teneke” by Fabio Vacchi, conducted by Roberto Abbado, and her debut at Bayerische Staatsoper Munich as ‘Pamina’ (“The Magic Flute”), conducted by Sir Ivor Bolton.
In 2008 she performed ‘Amore’ (“Orfeo ed Euridice”) in Naples conducted by Leopold Hager and ‘Servilia’ (“La Clemenza di Tito”) conducted by Roberto Abbado in Turin. After her first and very successful ‘Antonia’ (”Les Contes d’Hoffmann”) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève ,Rachel Harnisch sang ‘Marzelline’ (“Fidelio”) conducted by Claudio Abbado in Modena and Ferrara.

As a concert singer she has performed Luigi Nono’s “Prometeo”-Suite, Tippett’s “A child of our time”, Schumann’s “Faust-Szenen” (Harnoncourt), Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Debussy’s “Le Martyre de St. Sébastien” (Abbado, Hollweg) Haydn’s “Creation”, Mahler’s 2nd and 4th symphony, Pergolesi’s “Stabat mater” (Abbado), Haydn’s “Isola disabitata” (A. Jordan), Bach’s “St. John Passion”, Mozart’s “Requiem” and c minor mass, Brahms’ “Ein deutsches Requiem” and Poulenc’s “Gloria” with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Philippe Herreweghe, Kent Nagano, Bruno Weill, Dimitri Kitajenko, Eliahu Inbal, Harnoncourt, Roberto Abbado, John Neschling, Armin Jordan, Christian Zacharias, Stefan Soltesz, Sir Christopher Hogwood,  Michel Plasson and Jeffrey Tate with the major European orchestras.

Ms. Harnisch has performed recitals in Zurich, Geneva, Bochum, Berlin, Bern, Florence, Perugia, Rome and at the prestigious Lucerne Festival.

She has recorded W. A. Mozarts: “Betracht dies Herz (from “Grabmusik”) and “Laudate Dominum” (from “Vesperae solennes de confessore”) with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado for Deutsche Grammophon.