The Dutch mezzo-soprano Jannie Pranger is a singer and artist who combines passion with the challenging experiments of modern and contemporary music. Blessed with a flexible and strong voice she seeks the creative potentiality in music composed, improvised, and staged. She is a ‘real’ performer in the sense that for her the charm of any single performance depends on a proper going together of components, which only become defined within the process of performing.

Highlights of her career are the staging of Iannis Xenakis’ Oresteia with Johan Simons and Paul Koek and her recital Music for Solo Voice at the Beijing Normal University. Of Oresteia she sang the roles of ‘Kassandra’ and ‘Goddess Athena.’ At a special concert in Liège Jannie performed ‘Kassandra’ for Xenakis. Convinced of the quality of her musicianship, Xenakis approved her version of ‘Kassandra’ (originally written for male voice), and encouraged her to also adapt the score of ‘Goddess Athena’ for her voice. In a letter to her he showed his enthusiasm concerning the result. The recital in Beijing included among others, György Kurtág’s Attila József – Fragments, Luciano Berio’s Sequenza III, Louis Andriessen’s Lied van de Zee, and Maarten Altena’s Toonzucht

In collaboration with pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama she revisited the traditional recital by addressing its musical and ‘ritual’ conventions. Their recitals, with titles, such as Singing Stories and Crimes and Passion, were acclaimed as considerable successes. They performed the world premiere of Altena’s La belle Dame sans Merci, van Bergeijk’s You are my Fairy Queen, Lann’s The Owl and the Pussycat, Atsuhiko Gondaï’s La Poème de la Force and Martijn Padding’s Nederland Muziekland.
With Violinist Heleen Hulst and stage director Ute Stammberger she explored new ways to intensify the performance of Kurtág’s Kafka-Fragments by embedding it in a theatrical performance of Franz Kafka’s story Josephine the singer, or the Mouse Folk. In another version of the Kafka-Fragments they performed it in the twilight of a video environment within the deep silence of moving texts and letters..
With pianist Gerard Bouwhuis she performed Messiaen’s Harawi, chant d’amour et de mort and Arnold Schönberg’s Das Buch der hängenden Gärten. She won special acclaim for her interpretation of Atsuhiko Gondaï’s Rosario, Salvator Sciarrino’s Vanitas and for her interpretation of Xenakis’ Kassandra, which she performed in collaboration with percussionist Johan Faber.
She performed with ensembles and theatre groups including The Maarten Altena Ensemble, Loos Ensemble, Xenakis Ensemble, Theatergroep Hollandia and the Munich ensemble Comédia Opera Instabile.

She has had the honor of premiering many pieces among others Martijn Padding’s Nicht Eilen, Nicht Schleppen, and his Speculum Inversum, Maarten Altena’s Songs on texts of Remco Campert, Huib Emmer’s Rorschach Audio, and Calliope Tsoupaki’s The Hunting Gun.

Her roles in music theatre include 'Antigone' in Frederic Rzewski’s Antigone, ‘Woman’ in Alison Isadora’s Hoofdwas, ‘Frau’ in Gerhard Winkler’s Heptameron, ‘Jeanne’ in Calliope Tsoupaki’s Dark, ‘Anita Roddick’ in Hollandia’s Vuile Dieve, ‘Singer’ in Luciano Berio’s Recital I, ‘Frau von der Grenze’ in Comédia Opera Instabile’s Ein Landarzt.

Improvisation constitutes a recurring part throughout her career. She worked with outstanding improvisers such as Roscoe Mitchell and the late Lawrence D “Butch” Morris, Wolter Wierbos, Peter van Bergen, Mary Oliver and many others of the Dutch and international impro-scene.

As an artist who feels deeply connected to the creative potential of ‘music in the making’ it is for her a great privilege to have worked with composers, stage directors and conductors, among others Maarten Altena, Louis Andriessen, Calliope Tsoupaki, Alison Isadora, Iannis Xenakis, Alexander Knaifel, György Kurtág, Luca Francesconi, Atsuhiko Gondaï, Jan Ritsema, Leonard Frank, Ute Stammberger, Johan Simons, Paul Koek and Frederic Rzewski.