Biography

Soprano Fabienne Valentine Exler began her singing lessons at the age of ten. She won second prize in the 2008 Jugend musiziert Kleve regional competition and first prize in the selection competition of the German Musicians Association Cologne-Aachen in December 2011. An internship took her to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 2011, which strengthened her resolve to study singing. From 2012 she took singing lessons with soprano Heike Gierhardt and, after graduating from high school, studied musicology at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. In 2014 she began studying classical singing at the Maastricht Conservatory in Yvonne Schiffelers' class. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 2018. From November 2020 she studied at the Münster University of Music in the Master of Music department with a major in singing/opera in the class of Prof. Annette Koch. She successfully completed her master's degree and certificate year in 2023. In 2024, she was invited to the Bayreuth Festival as a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Association Münster.

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Her repertoire includes et al. the 1st girl of the second group in the flower girl scene from R. Wagner's ‘Parsifal’ (Conservatorium Maastricht),  the Kurfürstin in ‘Der Vogelhändler’ by C. A. Zeller (Hfm Münster), Rosalinde in ‘Die Fledermaus’ by J. Strauss (Hfm Münster), the 1st Dame in 'Die Zauberflöte' by W.A. Mozart (Hfm Münster), Diana in 'Orpheus in der Unterwelt' by J. Offenbach (Neue Operette Düsseldorf), Micaëla in ‘Carmen’ by G. Bizet and Gräfin in ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’. In August she will make her debut as Ottavia in "L'incoronazione di Poppea" by C. Monteverdi at the Berlin Opera Academy. 

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She performs her concert repertoire at the Evangelische Friedens-Kirchengemeinde Düsseldorf and the Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Am Norfbach, including excerpts from works by J.S. Bach (‘Matthäus Passion’, ‘Weihnachtsoratorium’), Bach-Schemelli (‘Geistliche Lieder’),

G. Homolius (‘Markus Passion’), W.A. Mozart (‘Exsultate Jubilate’), and H. Schütz (‘Geistliche Gesänge’). In November 2025 with Vivaldi (‘Gloria’) and Buxtehude (‘Alles was ihr tut mit Worten oder mit Werken’).  Most recently in the 125th anniversary celebrations of the Friedenskirche

C. Graupner's cantata ‘Jauchzet dem Herren alle Welt’. She will be performing her song repertoire in Olten (Switzerland) at the end of the year together with Julia Mikhailova in the concert evening ‘Seasons’.

Fabienne Valentine Exler also took part in various masterclasses, such as the Opera Studio Leipzig winter seminar with Ainhoa Garmendia, Maia Medrano and Christian Hornef, in St. Goar with Prof. Caroline Thomas, Prof. Fabio Vettraino, Fabrizio Ventura and in Cologne with Ingeborg Danz and Tobias Krampen, in order to gain experience for her further development. At the Münster University of Music, she had the opportunity to study repertoire with baritone Stefan Adam, Wagner tenor John Treleaven and conductor Will Humburg. From 2019 to 2021, she worked with the tenor and répétiteur Colenton Freeman, and since 2020 she has been working with the pianist Frank Scholzen.