German soprano Anja Petersen initially completed studies in violin and music education before devoting herself entirely to singing, finishing her education in the soloist class with highest marks. While still a student, she was a member of the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and appeared with them in many international concerts.

From 2002 to 2007 Anja Petersen (at the time, Anja Metzger) was a member of the Oldenburg State Theatre ensemble, where she developed and performed many lyric coloratura roles such as Gilda, Zerbinetta, Susanna, Micaëla, Eurydice, Blanche, Adina and Olympia. In 2005 Anja Petersen was awarded the Erna Schlüter Prize for “Extraordinary Vocal Achievement as a Young Performer”. Since 2007 she has performed as a soloist in several productions of the West German Radio Orchestra. As Blonde she has given guest performances at the Wiesbaden State Theatre, the Bremen Theatre and the Semperoper Dresden, and she was Queen of the Night at the New European Festival and Polyneikes in the Stuttgart State Opera premiere of Younghi Pagh-Paan’s chamber opera, Mondschatten.
In the 2007/2008 season she was a member of the Augsburg Theatre ensemble where she appeared as Despina, Blonde and Oscar.

Since 2010 Anja Petersen has been a member of the RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin and at the same time can be heard as an active guest-performer both nationally and internationally in a repertory which stretches from the baroque to the modern. In 2014, 2015 and 2020 she held lectureships at the Berlin University of the Arts. In June of 2014 she appeared as First Israelite in Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach’s Die Israeliten in der Wüste as part of the Leipzig Bach Festival. This performance was released as a CD by Sony in March of 2015.

Anja Petersen jumped in, at extremely short notice, to substitute at the world premiere of Arnulf Herrmann’s Drei Gesänge am offenen Fenster with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in October 2014, a feat for which she received wide acclaim from the international press.

In December 2016 she was Lady Macbeth in the world premiere of Frank Schwemmer’s opera Macbeth in Berlin and in 2017 she was performing L’icône paradoxale with the BR Symphony Orchestra in Munich as well as singing the female leading part Johanna in Arnulf Herrmann’s opera Der Mieter at the Oper Frankfurt.

In November 2021 she appeared at the musica viva festival in Munich with BRSO and Pablo Heras-Casado in the world premiere of Herrmann’s Tour de Trance. A CD of Arnulf Herrmann‘s works with BRSO and Petersen was released in January 2023.

Anja Petersen‘s debut with Radio-Sinfonieorchester Berlin was in March 2023, when she sang Polly in Dreigroschenoper of Brecht/Weill. Her first concert with Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin will be at the Ultraschall Festival Berlin in February 2024.