The daughter of a banker father and opera singer mother Ute Lemper grew up listening to American jazz and pop music. At an early age, entranced with the prospect of an entertainment career, she began to study piano, voice, and ballet. She started her stage career working in jazz and piano bars at the age of fifteen sining standard like "Lullaby of Birdland" and "Night and Day." She soon became intensely interested in acting as well and spent two years at the Staatstheater Stuttgart performing in works by Fassbinder and Chekhov. She also trained in classical theater at the prestigious Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. Although Ms. Lemper has enjoyed her greatest professional success as a singer, she is also an accomplished actress. She made her film debut in 1991 playing a haughty Queen Marie-Antoinette in the French production of L'Autricienne. That same year she worked on two additional French film, Pierre Qui Biule, a contemporary political film, and Jean Galmot, a 19th century adventure. She also appeared in Peter Greenway's Prospero's Books. Ute has also worked extensively on stage. Her first important role was in the Biennese production of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Cats. For a year she alternated between roles of Grizabella and Bombalurina. Next, she took on the tittle role in the Berlin production of Peter Pan. She later portrayed Sally Bowles in Cabaret and Lola in the Blue Angel. In addition to her stage work singing and acting, she has peformed as aprincipal dancer in a ballet created for her by noted choreographer MAurice Bejart entitled La Morte Suite. But it is Ute's singing career which has brought her the most attention. In addition to her Weill, Piaff and Dietrich recordings, she released a pop album, Crimes of the Heart in 1991. She also collaborated with composer Michael Nyman to record Songbook. The lyrics are based on different classic poems by famous authors including Paul Delan, Arthur Rimbaud and William Shakespeare. Songbook is a departure of Ute's usual repertoire and she credits Nyman for pushing her to new creative heights. CD Review called Songbook among the ost interesting recordings to date. The last two year exemplify Ute's continuing artistic goals - she was the "voice" in a series of concerts put on by Michael Nyman based on the previously mentioned Songbook; she took part in a tour titled "Homage to Cathy Berberian" under the leadership of Lucciano Berio, and she also made her debut at La Scala in Milan singing The Seven Deadly Sins with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano. Recently, she recorded her first album for Polydor, Espace Indecent. The recording is eleven original songs written by Patrice Guirao with music by Art Mengo. Ms. Lemper provided the English translation herself. Ute Lemper's pastimes include painting (she mounted expositions in 1993 in Paris and Hamburg); Journalism(she has written articles for Liberation, Die Welt, and The Guardian); she has recently completed her first book and she recently completed a role in the Robert Altman film, Pret-a-Porter.