Stephan Genz

The German baritone Stephan Genz was born in Erfurt in 1973 and received his first musical training as a chorister of St. Thomas, Leipzig. Following vocal studies with Hans-Joachim Beyer at the conservatory of Leipzig, he worked with Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll at the conservatory of Karlsruhe as well as with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

He soon came to prominence when he won awards at such prestigious competitions as the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Hamburg (1994) and the International Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart (1994).

Since then he has appeared at such leading opera houses as the Berlin Staatsoper, Hamburg Staatsoper, Paris (Bastille,Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Chatelet), Teatro alla Scala Milano, Grand Theatre de Geneve, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Strasbourg, Cologne and the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

He has worked with conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Gerd Albrecht, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas Hengelbrock, Gustav Kuhn, Sigiswald Kuijken, Rene Jacobs, Jesus Lopez-Coboz, Fabio Luisi, Georges Pretre, Bruno Bartoletti, Kent Nagano, Jeffrey Tate Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Masur, Eliahu Inbal, Mario Venzago and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

He has given concerts and recitals in the United States, South America, Canada, and most countries in Europe, including a highly successful debut-recital at London´s Wigmore Hall. This led to invitations for recitals in Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Frankfurt (Alte Oper), Philharmonie Köln, Brussels (Opera Royal de la Monnaie), Paris (Chatelet, Champs-Elysees, Louvre), the Schubertiade Feldkirch/Hohenems/Schwarzenberg, the Edinburgh Festival, Maggio Musicale Firenze, Festival Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Russia and Japan.

Stephan Genz has published numerous CD-recordings which have won important prizes such as „Timbre de Platine“ and „Diapason d’Or“. For his recording of Beethoven Lieder he received the „Gramophone Award“ and the „Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik“ . For Deutsche Grammophone he recorded Harlekin in „Ariadne auf Naxos“ under Sinopoli. Under the direction of Georges Pretre he recorded Olivier in „Capriccio“ by Richard Strauss. Stephan Genz was awarded the „Brahms-Preis“ of Schleswig-Holstein. The Belgium music critics elected him the „Young Artist of the Year“.

Recent opera engagements include Papageno in new productions of „Magic Flute“ at the opera house of Cologne and the Grand Theatre de Geneve and the roles of Frank and Fritz in „Die Tote Stadt“ at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, a production of Pier Luigi Pizzi under the musical direction of Eliahu Inbal. In the season 2010/11 Stephan Genz will make his debut at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus with Guglielmo in Cosi van tutte.  He will return to La Fenice in Venice singing Donner in Rheingold in a Robert Carsen production under the musical direction of Jeffrey Tate.