Katrin Gerstenberger was born in Halle an der Saale. Her formative years were strongly influenced by competitive sports (800m run and high jump) as well as music. At the age of 5 she received her first piano lessons and at age 12 she was accepted into the then newly established children's composition class in Halle. Several of her compositions were premiered in the new music concert series. After graduating from high school with a focus on languages (Russian, English, French, Italian), she began her vocal studies in 1984 at the Academy of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar, where she studied voice with Professor Gudrun Fischer. She was awarded the 1st prize at the National Opera Vocal Competition.
Upon completion of her studies she was engaged with the Bühnen der Stadt Gera where she made her professional debut as Azucena in Il Trovatore. In addition to her busy performing career, she was a lecturer in voice at the Hochschule in Weimar from 1990 to 1993.
In 1993 she was engaged as a lyric mezzo-soprano soloist at Staatstheater Darmstadt. There she performed many leading roles including Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, Idamante in Idomeneo, Don Ramiro in La Finta Giardiniera, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. Particularly important were the Strauss - roles: Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (Conductor: Albrecht / Director: Halmen).
In 2002 she began the transition to the jugendliche-dramatic soprano Fach with the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Judith in Bluebeard's Castle and her first Wagner role debut as Venus in Tannhäuser.
Since 2005 she has sung principal soprano roles including the title role in Antigone (Conductor: Stefan Blunier / Director: John Dew) in the Carl Orff Cycle which was recorded and produced on DVD, followed by Senta in The Flying Dutchman, Kundry in Parsifal, Leonore in Fidelio, Turandot and Abigail in Nabucco.
Katrin Gerstenberger made her debut in the new Ring Cycle (Director: John Dew) as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre in June 2011, followed by Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in October 2011. Plans for the 2012/13 season with Staatstheater Darmstadt include further performances as Brünnhilde in the Ring Cycle and her debut as Cassandra in Les Troyens.