Ursula Hesse von den Steinen was born in Cologne and studied voice at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin. She took part in masterclasses with Brigitte Fassbaender and the composer Aribert Reimann. In 1993, she won the Grand Prize for classic and contemporary Lieder at the Paula Salomon Lindberg Competition. The following year she won the second prize at the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang/ Oper.

She began her career with opera engagements at the Hamburg State Opera, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Komische Oper Berlin and the Opera Lübeck, where she made her debut in the tiltle-role of Carmen in the season 1995/96. Guest appearances followed at the Theatre de la Monnaie Brussels, the Opera Antwerp and the Netherlands Opera Amsterdam as well as the National Opera in Prague, the Theatre National de Toulouse (Walküre) and at the Semperoper in Dresden (Pintscher's Thomas Chatterton). In 1999/ 2000 she became a member of the Semperoper in Dresden, where she has sung Cenerentola, Meg Page (Falstaff), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Isabella (Italiana in Algeri) to much acclaim. She sang with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Semyon Bychkov, Pinchas Steinberg, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Hartmut Haenchen. Amongst the directors she worked with, are Ursel + Karl Ernst Herrmann, Willi Decker, Pierre Audi, Andreas Homoki, Nicolas Joel, Luc Peilly and Stephen Lawless.

She sang Carmen in Bonn and made her successful debut at the Grand Opéra de Paris with the part of Anna in K. Weill's 7 deadly sins. Further guest performances at the Théatre Royal de la Monnaie (R. Strauss' Elektra) and the Nederlandse Oper Amsterdam (A. Berg's Lulu, conducted by Hartmut Haenchen and directed by Andreas Homoki) followed, as well as invitations back to the Dresdner Semper Oper for Wagner's Ring. In January 2004 she returned as Orlofsky in the Fledermaus at the Bastille Opera, Paris. This was followed by Giulietta in Contes d'Hoffmann in Nantes/Angers and Fricka in Rheingold at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, and concerts under the baton of James Levine and Eliahu Inbal and Pierre Boulez. She made her debut as Prinz Orlowsky at Glyndebourne's Fledermaus in 2006. F future plans include Caligula in Cologne, Wozzeck-Marie in Lille and Komposer/Ariadne in Tel Aviv.

Ursula Hesse is well known for her concerts with interpretations of contemporary works.
She has also recorded several CDs with songs by Anton von Webern, Aribert Reimann and Wolfgang Rihm (ORFEO). Her newest recording - Hindemiths Das lange Weihnachtsmahl - just won the ECHO Prize.