Friederike Meinel was born in Jena; both her parents are physicians. She first studied at the HdK (Academy of the Arts) in Berlin with Ingrid Figur and then with Rudolf Piernay in Mannheim (concert proficiency exam). She was a pupil in Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s and Aribert Reimann’s master classes for several years. Among her other important teachers were Ingrid Bjoner and Irmgard Boas.

Friederike Meinel won international contests and prizes, for instance the Paula-Lindberg-Salomon singing competition, the Yamaha scholarship singing competition, as well as the O.E. Hasse-prize, which was awarded to her by the O.E. Hasse Foundation and the Academy of Arts. Already the winner of the Richard-Wagner-scholarship, she was furthermore awarded the Juetting scholarship.

Friederike Meinel was a member of the Young Ensemble of the Bavarian StateOpera in Munich. She was a member of the company of the Opera House Wuppertal and subsequently a member of the company of the Cologne Opera House. She sang the parts of Tatjana in „Eugen Onegin“, Donna Elvira in „Don Giovanni”, Madame Lidoine in „Dialogues des Carmélites“, La Malaspina in „Luci mi traditrici” and various parts (Freia, 3.Norn, Gutrune, Woglinde, Ortlinde, ) in „Ring des Nibelungen”.
The soprano gave her Vienna debut at the Vienna Festival
in the title role of „Penthesilea – Ein Traum”, conducted by Ulf Schirmer. She sang the part of Hilde in the world premiere of „Celan” at the Semperoper in Dresden with Marc Albrecht
conducting, and the world premiere of „Glas im Bauch” at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. The singer gave her Swiss debut in the role of Conception in L’heure espagnole by
Maurice Ravel. Among the conductors she worked with in the course of her opera career are Jun Maerkl, Peter Schneider, and Jeffrey Tate.

Friederike Meinel concertized with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Guerzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic. She made guest appearances at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Cuvillies- Theatre in Munich, the Prinzregenten Theatre in Munich, the Berlin Concert House, the large
broadcasting hall of the radio station WDR in Cologne, the Chamber Opera Schloss Rheinsberg, and the Heidelberger Fruehling (spring Festival). Song recitals brought the young singer to Cologne, where she gave a recital of „Franz Schubert -Die Lieder” in a concert series of the Cologne Philharmonic and the WDR under the artistic direction of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as well as to Chicago, where she could be heard at the Ravina Festival.