Born in Delft, Christianne studied violin and voice at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.  After obtaining her solo violin diploma she continued her vocal studies with Udo Reinemann, Jard van Nes and Dame Janet Baker. Over the years Christianne has won numerous awards, including the prestigious ECHO Rising Stars Award 2005/2006, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2005, and the Nederlands Muziekprijs in 2008. In 2007 she was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist.

A passionate and acclaimed interpreter of art song, Stotijn has long-standing recital partnerships with pianists Joseph Breinl and Julius Drake, appearing in the world’s foremost venues. She is also an enthusiastic chamber musician, performing regularly with violist Antoine Tamestit, her brother, double bassist Rick Stotijn, and the Oxalys Ensemble.

Her artistry has been deeply shaped by her collaboration with the late Bernard Haitink, with whom she appeared with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. Other conductors with whom she has worked include Claudio Abbado, Iván Fischer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, Vladimir Jurowski and Jaap van Zweden. Her wide-ranging repertoire spans from Berlioz’s La mort de Cléopâtre and Elgar’s Sea Pictures to Mahler’s song cycles, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and contemporary masterpieces such as Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs and Hans Werner Henze’s Fünf neapolitanische Lieder.

Stotijn is also a dedicated performer of contemporary music. In 2009 Michel van der Aa dedicated his song cycle Spaces of Blank to her and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. She gave the world première of Thomas Adès’ Totentanz at the BBC Proms in 2013, later recording it with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon—a release that won a Gramophone Award in 2020.

On the operatic stage she has sung roles including Pauline (Pique Dame, Paris Opera), Isabella (L’Italiana in Algeri, Aix-en-Provence), Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea, Dutch National Opera, Oviedo, Bilbao), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare, La Monnaie and Dutch National Opera), the title role in Tamerlano (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde in concert), Marfa (Khovanshchina, Oper Stuttgart), Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra), and in 2020 made her role debut as Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal at the Opéra du Rhin.

Since 2013, Stotijn has served as artistic director of the Udo Reinemann International Masterclasses in Brussels. In 2021 she was appointed Professor of Voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg.

Her recordings are released on Onyx, Warner Classics, MDG and Deutsche Grammophon. Her Tchaikovsky song recital (Onyx) won the BBC Music Magazine Award, while her Frank Martin Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke (MDG) received the ECHO Award for “Liedeinspielung des Jahres 2008.” Her album If the Owl Calls Again was a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice,” praised for its individuality and adventurous spirit.

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