German baritone STEPHAN GENZ was born in Erfurt and received
his first musical training as a chorister of St. Thomas’ in 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. International attention came with awards at such prestigious competitions
as the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Hamburg and International Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart. Opera companies
with which Mr. Genz has appeared include the Berlin and Hamburg Staatsopers, Paris’ Opéra de la Bastille, Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées and Théâtre Châtelet, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Opéras of Lausanne and Strasbourg, Semperoper Dresden
and Aix-en-Provence Festival, collaborating with such conductors as Myung-Whun Chung, Marcus Creed, Gerd Albrecht, Daniel
Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas Hengelbrock, Gustav Kuhn, Sigiswald Kuijken, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Fabio Luisi, Georges
Prêtre, Rene Jacobs, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Masur and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In addition he has given concerts in America,
South America, Canada, and throughout Europe, his repertoire including the Brahms and Fauré Requiems (both of which
he has recorded), Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and nearly all concert literature for lyric baritone.
He enjoyed particular success performing the Britten War Requiem with James Judd and the Orchestra National de Lille
in Paris.
Perhaps most esteemed as an art-song interpreter of the first rank, Mr. Genz
has been welcomed at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, New York’s Frick Collection and Alice
Tully Hall, as well as on the major art-song series of Philadelphia, Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Montreal,
Cologne, Brussels, Paris, Florence, Aix-en-Provence, Tokyo, Florence and Feldkirch. His lieder recordings have earned some
of the industry’s highest honors, including the Timbre de Platine, Diapason d`Or, and for his recording
of Beethoven Lieder on Hyperion the Gramophone Award and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In 1999 he was
bestowed the Brahms Prize in Schleswig-Holstein and in 2000 was named “Young Artist of the Year” by Belgium’s
music critics. In 2006-2007 he made his North American orchestral debut in the Brahms Requiem with the Indianapolis
Symphony/Mario Venzago.
