Annette Markert was born at Kaltensundheim in der Rhön. After vocal study in Leipzig she spent several years at the opera houses of Halle and Leipzig. Among title rôles she sang Floridante, Rinaldo and Oreste in operas by Handel, a number of Mozart rôles, as well as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Olga in Eugene Onegin. Since 1996 she has worked free-lance with important conductors, choirs and orchestras. She sang in Mendelssohn’s Elijah under Philippe Herreweghe at the opening concert of the Salzburg Festival, in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the New York Philharmonic and the Leipzig Thomanerchor under Kurt Masur, and in the Mass in B minor under Roger Norrington at the London Promenade Concerts, to mark the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death. Other performances include the rôle of Medea in Georg Katzer’s Medea in Corinth, and Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Lotario. She has appeared in leading festivals, collaborating, among others, with Peter Schreier, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, as well as with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. Her many recordings include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and St John Passion, Mozart’s Requiem and Mendelssohn’s St Paul.