Christa Mayer received her vocal training at the Bavarian Singakademie and the Musikhochschule in Munich, graduating in 2001 with a master class diploma. Already during her studies she was awarded numerous prizes, including a prize at the ARD International Competition in Munich.
Since 2001 Christa Mayer has been a member of the ensemble at the Semperoper in Dresden. Here she has made successful role debuts as Erda (Das Rheingold and Siegfried), Fenena (Nabucco), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Quickly (Falstaff), Ottavia (Poppea), Orlando (Orlando), Baba (The Rake's progress), Adelaide (Arabella), Gaea (Daphne), Jezibaba (Rusalka), Countess Geschwitz (Lulu), among others. In the Semperoper's Ring cycle, Christa Mayer appeared as Erda and Waltraute (Götterdämmerung) under the musical direction of Fabio Luisi (2006).
Guest appearances have taken her to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, to the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Florence and the Teatro La Fenice Venice, as well as to the opera houses in Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao and Madrid.
As a concert singer she has worked with conductors Herbert Blomstedt, Sir Colin Davis, Frans Brüggen, Charles Mackerras, Jonathan Nott, Omer Meir Wellber, Robin Ticciati, Daniele Gatti, Semyon Bychkov, Marek Janowski, Ingo Metzmacher Christian Thielemann and Riccardo Chailly.
In 2007 Christa Mayer was invited to perform in the Ring with Zubin Mehta at the newly built Palau De Les Arts Valencia (Erda, Schwertleite). In 2008 Christa Mayer made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival under the baton of Christian Thielemann as Erda and Waltraute - and was subsequently invited back to Bayreuth for the same roles in 2009 and 2010.
With outstanding international success, Christa Mayer sang Brangäne in Bayreuth's Tristan. At the New National Theatre in Tokyo she took on the role of Erda. At the 2016 Salzburg Easter Festival she appeared in Otello (Emilia) and sang Missa solemnis under Christian Thielemann, and in 2017 she took on the role of Fricka in the Salzburg Walküre, also with Thielemann. In Mathis der Maler (conducted by Simone Young) in Dresden she sang the Countess. Christa Mayer's interpretation of Didon in the new Dresden production of Berlioz's Les Troyens was a particular personal success. With the Bayreuth Festival, Christa Mayer made a guest appearance in Abu Dhabi as Fricka, and she returned to Salzburg as Magdalene in Die Meistersinger. Under the musical direction of Jaap van Zweeden, Christa Mayer sang Fricka in Walküre in Dallas.
In the summer of 2019, Christa Mayer again performed Brangäne in Bayreuth. The BBC Symphony Orchestra London engaged Christa Mayer for concerts of Glanert's Requiem, and with Christian Thielemann conducting the artist sang the part of the Waldtaube in Schönberg’s Gurrelieder in Dresden. Christa Mayer also performed this role with the KBSSO in Seoul.
In the 2020/21 season, Christa Mayer sang Clairon in the new production of Capriccio at the Semperoper. Also in 2021, she appeared at the Bayreuth Festival as Fricka in Walküre, and sang concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Megaron Athens and the Salzburg Festspielhaus. In the new Bayreuth Ring in 2022, she sang Fricka in Rheingold and Walküre, as well as Waltraute in Walküre and Götterdämmerung.
In the 22/23 season the singer made her debut as Amneris in Aida and sang Fricka as well as Siegfried-Erda in the Ring at the Semperoper Dresden, made a guest appearance as Brangäne at the Vienna State Opera and returned to the Bayreuth Festival in the Ring and as Brangäne. On the concert stage she sang Mahler's Lied von der Erde with the Duisburg Philharmonic under the baton of Axel Kober and with the Gulbenkian orchestra under the baton of Hannu Lintu, participated in the televised New Year's Eve Concert at the Semperoper Dresden and took on the alto part in Mahler's 3rd Symphony in Dresden, Leipzig, Hamburg and Vienna under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann.
Recently she sang Brangäne and gave her role debut as Kabanicha in Káťa Kabanová in Dresden. In Bayreuth she performed as Fricka and Waltraute in the Ring des Nibelungen and as Brangäne in the 2024 new production of Tristan und Isolde. Furthermore she could be heard in numerous concert performances in Paris, Tokyo, Prague, Weimar and Dresden a.o. Among her future engagements, besides many performances at the Semperoper in Dresden, is her debut at the Scala in Milan as Erda in the Ring cycle. In Bayreuth she will once more appear as Fricka and Waltraute in the Ring and also take over the role of Magdalene in the new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
In February 2020, the Semperoper in Dresden honored Christa Mayer's artistic merits with the title of Kammersängerin. The state of Bavaria awarded Christa Mayer with the „Bayerischer Kulturpreis“ in the fall of 2020.
