She studied at the Mozarteum University Salzburg under Heiner Hopfner and as part of Wolfgang Holzmair’s Lied class, where she was additionally awarded the Lilli Lehmann Medal for her master's degree in opera/musical theatre. After making her debut at the Salzburg Festival before graduating, she has been a welcome guest ever since.

As a performer of the most celebrated roles in the repertoire, she continues to appear on the world’s prominent stages: in London at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and at Opéra national de Paris as Pamina Die Zauberflöte, at the Lyric Opera Chicago and at the Met in New York as Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro, at La Scala in Milan as Sophie Werther and Euridice Orfeo ed Euridice, at the Vienna State Opera as Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande, at the Hamburg State Opera as Pamina, Mélisande, Daphne and Contessa Le Nozze di Figaro, at the Staatsoper unter den Linden as Micaëla Carmen and at the Bavarian State Opera as Pamina, Blanche Dialogues des Carmélites and Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte. As Artist in Residence at the Graz Musikverein, Christiane Karg was heard for the first time as Rosalinde in a concert performance of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, and as Rusalka in Antonín Dvořák's fairy-tale opera of the same name she will make her eagerly awaited role debut at the Staatsoper Berlin in the current season.

The soprano is an equally sought-after performer on the international concert stage. Her musical partnerships to date have included names such as Ivor Bolton, Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Iván Fischer, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Thomas Hengelbrock, Manfred Honeck, Mariss Jansons, Fabio Luisi, Marek Janowski, Andrew Manze, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kirill Petrenko und Christian Thielemann. These have paved the way for collaborations with major orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Bamberg and Vienna Symphony Orchestras and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

Projects in the current season include Mendelssohn's Second Symphony ("Lobgesang") with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Andris Nelsons, Berlioz's Les nuits d'été with the Filarmonica della Scala under Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Antonello Manacorda, and Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España conducted by David Afkham. Christiane Karg will also appear as soloist in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the WDR Sinfonieorchester under Christian Măcelaru and in Berg's Seven Early Songs with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi. With the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra she will perform in Mahler's Fourth Symphony under Elim Chan and with the Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä, with whom she will also perform in a chamber concert.

Christiane Karg continues to cultivate her passion for song and chamber music projects, with regular guest appearances at the Schubertiade in Hohenems and Schwarzenberg, as well as at London's Wigmore Hall (as artist in residence in the 2019/2020 season). She has also given numerous recitals at the Vienna Musikverein, Vienna Konzerthaus, Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin and the Salzburg Festival.

Off stage, Christiane Karg leads and creates her own concert series in her hometown of Feuchtwangen as artistic director of the KunstKlang festival, while spearheading the project "Be part of it! - Music for All", championing music education for children and young people. For her services, she received the Brahms Prize of the Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein, the Bavarian Culture Prize in the category of art and the Bavarian Order of Merit.

In spring 2017, Christiane Karg released her critically acclaimed solo CD Parfum with settings of texts by Charles Baudelaire, Leconte de Lisle, Paul Verlaine, Tristan Klingsor and Victor Hugo on the Berlin Classics label. She also received the coveted Echo Klassik for her recording of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro under Yannick Nézet-Séguin in the category Opera Recording of the Year. Her additional discs Scene! with the Arcangelo Baroque Ensemble under Jonathan Cohen as well as her first lied disc Verwandlung - Lieder eines Jahres were honoured with the renowned music prize in the category "Solo Recording". Her recordings Amoretti with arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christoph Willibald Gluck and André Grétry, and Heimliche Aufforderung with songs by Richard Strauss are also available on the Berlin Classics label. The Harmonia Mundi label, where Christiane Karg is now an exclusive artist, released Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Choral Fantasy with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado, followed by her solo album Erinnerung with songs by Gustav Mahler.

Her latest recording Das Licht der Welt - A Christmas Promenade, on which she is accompanied by Gerold Huber at the piano and the Bavarian Radio Choir under Howard Arman illuminates enchanting rarities of the Christmas repertoire. Excerpts from the disc she has taken to the stage of the Vienna Musikverein.