The German tenor, Sebastian Franz, received his first musical training as a member of Windsbacher Knabenchor and as a church music graduate in Eichstätt, before he began studying voice with Professor Marina Sandel at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover. There he completed his Bachelor of Music degree and graduated in summer 2017 with the Master of Music degree.
Sebastian Franz has received extensive experience as a soloist on the opera stage in numerous university productions, among others as Remendado in Georges Bizet's Carmen, as Fenton in Otto Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, as Flute in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and as a spouse in Francis Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias. His first guest engagements took him to the Opernfestspielen Heidenheim in 2015, where he played the lead role in Jakob Vinje's Prinzessin Anna, and in the 2016-2017 season to the Aachen Theater, where he was a minder in Jerry Bock's Fiddler on the Roof. In the fall of 2017 he guested at the Staatstheater Hannover in the role of the Young Lord in Hans Werner Henze's Der junge Lord. Since the season 2017-2018, he is a permanent member of the Chor der Oper Frankfurt.
In the Lied class of Professor Jan Philip Schulze, Sebastian Franz got during his studies important impulses for his Lieder singing. Furthermore, he attende several master-classes with Thomas Heyer, Markus Schäfer, Christoph Prégardien, Ulrike Sonntag, Juliane Banse, Roman Trekel and John Streets, who influenced him musically in a lasting way.
An important focus for Sebastian Franz is the concert and oratorio field. His repertoire includes the small as well as the great sacred works of J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, J. Haydn, W.A. Mozart, F. Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn. Particularly noteworthy are the Evangelist parts of Johannes-Passion (BWV 245), Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) and Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) by J.S. Bach, for which he is now regularly engaged at home and abroad.
Sebastian Franz is a member of renowned ensembles such as the Gaechinger Cantorey Stuttgart (Director: Helmuth Rilling), Vocalconsort Berlin, ChorWerk Ruhr (Director: Florian Helgath) and Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Director: Howard Arman), RIAS-Kammerchor (Director: Justin Doyle), Schola Heidelberg (Director: Walter Nußbaum), Chorakademie Lübeck (Drector: Rolf Beck), Collegium Vocale Hannover (Director: Florian Lohmann). He has sung under renowned conductors such as Peter Dijkstra, Daniel Harding, Alexander Liebreich, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Ivan Repušić, Helmuth Rilling, Ulf Schirmer, and Keri-Lynn Wilson. |