German Mezzo Soprano Ulrike Mayer has been described by Germany's leading national radio station Deutschlandfunk as (...) Ideal is the young singer Ulrike Mayer. The mezzosoprano has a strikingly beautiful voice and she presents text like a storyteller. Add to this her acting with complete physical involvement without exaggeration. In this way, Ulrike Mayer portrays her character completely convincingly - from youthful lover to a woman of old age. (...)

Recent opera engagements include Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau directed by Florian Lutz and conducted by the General Music Director Antony Hermus; and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at Scottish Opera (directed by Sir Thomas Allen). Hailed for "disturbingly realistic interpretation of young man" critics reported "Ulrike Mayer's Cherubino was one of the great successes of the evening. Her Cherubino was very much the precocious teenager whose description of himself as being firstly on fire and then icy cold in "Non so più" was marvellously matched by gripping sforzandos from the pit. Miss Mayer even managed to allow her Cherubino to look more awkwardly boyish whilst dressed in petticoats than he had done wearing a suit - a rare achievement indeed."

During her five years as a member of the fest ensemble of the Magdeburg Theater Ulrike sang the roles of Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Idamante (Idomeneo), Orpheus (Orpheo ed Euridice), Hänsel (Hansel and Gretel), Alcina (Orlando furioso), Flavius (Flavius Bertaridus), Maddalena (Rigoletto), the Page (Salome), Olga (Eugene Onegin) and Eliza (My fair lady). She sang Orpheus (Orpheo ed Euridice) directed by the renowned director Andreas Kriegenburg, which was nominated for the esteemed German theatre award 'Faust' in 2006.

She sang Hanns Eisler‘s Hollywood Elegies at the Ruhr Triennale in 2002. In 2003 she appeared in the role of Holofernes in Vivaldi‘s Juditha triumphans at the summer festival of the Rheinsberg Castle Chamber Opera before remodeling this role at the Mainz State Theater. In 2004 she sang the title role in Siegfried Matthus‘s opera Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke in guest appearances with the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

In 2006 she was engaged for the role of the Nurse in the premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino‘s opera Da gelo a gelo at the Schwetzingen Festival (directed by Trisha Brown) and made her debut at the Opéra de Bastille in Paris as the Page in Richard Strauss‘ Salome conducted by Hartmut Haenchen (Director: Lev Dodin) in the same year.
In 2009 Ulrike was heard as Ruggiero (Alcina) at the Bayreuth Easterfestival and as Périchole (La Périchole) at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau.
2010 she debuted with Kurt Weill Festival asVenus in Kurt Weill's Musical One touch of Venus.

In the upcoming season 2011/2012 Ulrike will tour with the renowned baroque ensemble Lautten Compagney Berlin and the puppet theatre Carlo Colla e Figli to debut the role of Rinaldo in Handel Rinaldo.
Ulrike sang the alto solo in a s staged version of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle at the Kunstfest Weimar with the ensemble Nico and the Navigators, conducted by Nicolas Jenkins, and the production will continue next season at Grand Theatre de Luxembourg, Opéra comique Paris and the Bregenz Festival.

Born in Stuttgart, Ulrike Mayer studied with Thomas Quasthoff at the Detmold Academy of Music and with Klesie Kelly at Cologne University of Music. She received scholarships from the “Vera and Volker Doppelfeld”-, the “Hans and Eugenia Jütting“- and the “Dr. Werner Richard and Carl Dörken“-Foundation and won several awards at national and international competitions, including first prize at the “Euriade Vocal Concours“ in the Netherlands and a special prize at the “Bundeswettbewerb Gesang" in Berlin.

Ulrike has performed her extensive lied and oratorio repertoire in Germany and abroad. She has given concerts at Elmau Castle, the Konzerthaus and Philharmonie in Berlin, the Auditorio Nacional de Musica Madrid and the Mannheimer Mozartsommer. Ulrike sang in the premiere of Sigfried Matthus's "Te Deum" with the Berlin Radio Chorus under Kurt Masur at the reopening of the Dresden Frauenkirche. She has worked with conductors including Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Will Humburg, Miguel Angel Gomez-Martinez and Hartmut Haenchen.