Wolfgang Holzmair, Baritone

Wolfgang Holzmair was born in Vöcklabruck, Austria, and studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art with Hilde Rössel-Majdan (voice) and Erik Werba (lied).

The singer performs in recital throughout the world, including London, Lisbon, New York, Washington, at the Risör Festival (Norway), Bath Festival (UK), Menuhin Festival (Switzerland), Bregenz Festival and Carinthian Summer Festival (Austria), and in 2009/10 again in London, as well as Moscow, Salzburg, Vienna, The Hague, Seoul, etc. Alongside his outstanding artistic relationship with the British pianist Imogen Cooper and his collaboration with a number of well-versed accompanists, he performs with some of the leading pianists of our time, such as Till Fellner, Lars Vogt, Christian Zacharias and, most recently, Andreas Haefliger.

Holzmair is also active in the opera world. He recently appeared as Papageno (Magic Flute) and Eisenstein (Fledermaus) in Dallas under Graeme Jenkins, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier in Seattle under Asher Fish and in Hong Kong under Edo deWaart, Don Alfonso (Cosi) in Lyon under William Christie and in Toronto under Richard Bradshaw, the Music Master in Ariadne in Madrid under Jesús López-Cobos, Wolfram (Tannhäuser) in Erfurt under Gugerbauer, Eduard (Neues vom Tage by Hindemith) in Ancona, Demetrius (A Midsummernight’s Dream, Britten) in Toronto under Anne Manson and the Father (Hansel and Gretel) on a Japan tour under Ozawa. Future plans include Don Alfonso (Cosi) at the Met under William Christie and concertante performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas under Harnoncourt in Vienna and Milhaud’s Les Choéphores under Casadesus in Lille and Paris.

Equally in demand on the concert platform, he has sung with leading European and American orchestras, such as the Israel Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland and Concertgebouw Orchestras and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, under eminent conductors including Blomstedt, Boulez, Chailly, Frühbeck de Burgos, Haitink, Harnoncourt, Kreizberg, Norrington, Ozawa. This season he sings Faust/Dr. Marianus in Schumann’s Scenes from Faust with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard, Elias in Mendelsohn’s Elias under Jörg Ewald Dähler or orchestrated songs from Krenek’s Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen under Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

Wolfgang Holzmair has an extensive discography, and his recordings have met with critical acclaim. His numerous recordings include lieder by Clara and Robert Schumann and Eichendorff songs by various composers, all with Imogen Cooper (Philips), various Schubert recordings with Gérard Wyss (Tudor), Pelléas et Mélisande with Haitink and the Orchestre National de France (Naive), and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with Herbert Blomstedt, which won a Grammy award. Most recently his recording of Songs from the British Isles with the Trio Wanderer (Cyprés) received the Austrian Radio’s Pasticcio Award. For years he has also been a committed advocate of works, especially lieder, by formerly persecuted composers as is evidenced by his Krenek, Mittler and Zeisl CDs (ORF, cpo). A Terezin recording has just been released (Bridge Records).

Since 1998 he has taught lied and oratorio at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and given master classes in Europe and North America. He is also a visiting professor and fellow of the Royal College of Music (London).