After studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris, Catherine Trottmann joined the Ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper where she made her first stage appearances.
The young soprano swiftly made an impression for her richness of tone and her talent as an actress, appearing in major international venues and festivals such as Opéra de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonie, The Edinburgh and Aix-en-Provence Festivals.
Nominated in 2017 at the Victoires de la Musique in the category “Révélation Artiste Lyrique” she won the First Prize at the Manhattan International Music Competition and was a HSBC Laureate of the Académie of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
In 2025 and 2026, Catherine Trottmann was honoured to perform at the official ceremonies celebrating the induction of Robert Badinter and Marc Bloch into the Panthéon, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Recently, she made her eagerly anticipated debuts at La Scala as Jemmy in a new production of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell helmed by Michele Mariotti and Chiara Muti, and made her Opéra Comique house debut as Clara in the French creation of Das kalte Herz (Nuit sans aube) composed and conducted by Matthias Pintscher.
Catherine garnered widespread acclaim for her portrayal of Edwige in Offenbach’s Robinson Crusoé in a new Laurent Pelly production in Rennes, Angers and Nantes, and offered her title role debut in Ted Huffman’s staging of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Rennes Opera, followed by performances of the role at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Nederlandse Reisopera.
Other notable highlights in her career include Leïla in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles under Guillaume Tourniaire at the Saint-Etienne Opera, Adina in L’Elisir d’amore at the Bordeaux National Opera and Eliza Doolittle in Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady at the Lausanne Opera. She took the stage as Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées as well as in Lausanne, Dijon, Bremen and Beaune.
Catherine Trottmann is an exponent of the French repertoire. She has sung in Debussy’s La Demoiselle élue with the Orchestre National d’l’Ile-de-France at the Paris Philharmonie and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges at Paris Salle Pleyel. She has embodied the roles of Princess Cunégonde in Jacques Offenbach’s Le Roi Carotte at the Opéra de Lyon and Diane in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysees.
Also active on the concert stage, Catherine has performed Mozart’s Requiem with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France led by Leonardo García Alarcón at the Maison de La Radio, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major at the Avignon Opera, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio in Russia with the Moscow New Philharmonic Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with both the Orchestre National de Lyon and Orchestre National de Lorraine, and the French premiere of Leonid Desyatnikov’s Illusions perdues with the Bolshoi Ballet at the Palais Garnier.
Exploring more and more Baroque music, she was recently invited to sing Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante in a Stefan Plewniak/Nicolas Briançon production for the Opéra Royal de Versailles and Bellezza in Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Le Banquet Celeste at the Opéra de Rennes.
The 2026/2027 season sees Catherine performing a new Thierry Fischer/Netia Jones production of Frank Martin’s La Tempête (Miranda) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Mozart’s Requiem in a staging by Stéphane Braunschweig at both the Opéra de Bordeaux and Opéra de Massy. She will return to Versailles for Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment (Marie) and for the French version of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina, soprano version). Add to this Rameau’s Platée (Thalie/La Folie) with Camille Delaforge and Il Caravaggio in Rennes, Compiègne, Tourcoing and Paris Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.
