From art song to avant-garde metal: Gerda Iguchi joins IGORRR on tour

Art Song Challenge 2025 Audience Award winner Gerda Iguchi takes her genre-defying artistry to some of Europe’s major stages as the new vocalist of experimental metal band IGORRR.

What happens when an operatic voice meets electronic sound, baroque music and extreme metal? For mezzo-soprano, composer and transcriber Gerda Iguchi, these musical worlds have never been separate.

In 2025, Gerda became one of the five finalists of the Art Song Challenge, selected from more than 130 submissions representing 29 countries. Her reimagining of Richard Wagner’s Träume combined the intimacy of art song with synthesised ambient textures and won the LIEDBasel- un die Audience Award.

Now, her artistic journey is entering an exciting new chapter. IGORRR have welcomed Gerda as their new vocalist, describing her as an exceptional performer who already knows the band’s music inside out. She joins the French genre-defying project for its 2026 live programme, with performances at venues and festivals across Europe, including Hellfest, Roskilde Festival, Alcatraz, Rock the Lakes and ArcTanGent.

The collaboration is a natural continuation of Gerda’s artistic practice. In her own projects, she has repeatedly brought classical repertoire into conversation with contemporary and experimental music. Her production DIDO?! combined Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with music by IGORRR, while Wesendonck Synthetic transforms Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder through electronics and ambient sound.

Gerda’s path from the Art Song Challenge to international festival stages embodies what ASC stands for: artistic courage, individual vision and a willingness to rethink where song belongs and what it can become.

We congratulate Gerda on this remarkable new chapter and cannot wait to follow the journey.

Discover Gerda Iguchi: gerdaiguchi.com Explore IGORRR’s upcoming shows: igorrr.com