A native of Leipzig, she attended the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn," where she studied with Helga Forner, and earned two degrees with distinction. Kermes has performed leads in operas by Handel, such as Alcina, Deidamia, and Rodelinda, as well as various Mozart roles, including Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Other parts have included Laodice in Alessandro Scarlatti's Mitridate Eupatore, and Rosalinde in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. Kermes appeared at the 2000 revival of Legrenzi's three-act opera La divisione del mondo at the Schwetzingen Festival, singing the role of Cinzia. She has appeared at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Bonn Opera, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Kermes has also been a guest artist at the Bachfest Leipzig, the Bachfest Bonn, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Festa de Musica in Lisbon, the Ruhrtriennale, the Triennale di Colonia, Prague Autumn, and Resonanzen Vienna. She has sung in concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, the Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Il Complesso Barocco, and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra. Kermes has recorded on Sony Classical, RCA Red Seal, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Archiv Produktion, and Capriccio Records, among other labels. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi