Katharina Rikus was born in Liestal, Switzerland. She studied singing at the Music Academy in Basel and took the opera course at the Higher School of Music in Saarbrücken under the supervision of Philippe Huttenlocher and Siegmund Nimsgern. She continued her studies with Gloria Davy at Indiana University, Bloomington.
She was awarded various scholarships and prizes, including the ‘Studienpreis des Schweizer Tonkünstlervereins’ and a scholarship from the ‘Richard-Wagner-Verband’ in Saarbrücken.
For three years she was a member of the Chamber Opera company in Frankfurt, where she performed leading parts in operas by Händel, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti. She has given guest performances in Florence as Galatea in Händel’s Acis and Galatea and has appeared in several productions at the Bremen Opera (Boris Godunov, Fatinitza by Franz von Suppé and Leben mit einem Idioten by Alfred Schnittke).
Her recent appearances include Wagner’s Parsifal in Baden-Baden (produced by Nikolaus Lehnhoff, with Kent Nagano conducting). The production is available on dvd.
Besides the classical concert repertoire, Katharina Rikus has developed an interest in contemporary music. She has numerous first performances of new works to her credit. Over the past few years she has appeared with several 20th-century music ensembles (including taima Granada) in such works as Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire, Berio’s Folk Songs and Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children. She performs regularly around Europe.
Since 1997 she has run a class at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen.