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The German baritone, Stephan Genz, received his first musical training as a member of Thomanerchor in Leipzig. At age 15, he began studies with Hans-Joachim Beyer at the Hochschule für Music und Theater in Leipzig with Hans-Joachim Beyer, and from 1994 with Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll at the State Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe. He has also studied with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. He has won first prizes and special awards at several international singing competitions including the Johannes Brahms Competition in Hamburg in 1994, the International Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart, and the Brahms-Preis des Landes Schleswig-Holstein (October 1999).
Stephan Genz has in an astonishingly short time become one of Europe’s most sought-after and acclaimed lieder interpreters. He has given acclaimed recitals in Paris’ Théâtre Châtelet and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, London’s Wigmore Hall (highly acclaimed London debut in 1997), Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussels’ Opéra Royal de la Monnaie, the Schubertiade (Feldkirch/Hohenems), and the music festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, Maggio Musicale, and Verbier, as well as throughout Spain and Japan. He has also given song recitals and concerts in Montreux, Lausanne, Rennes and America.
Stephan Genz' North American recital tour in 2002 included today’s Cal Performances appearance, as well as concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the University Musical Society (Ann Arbor, Michigan), the Vocal Recital Series (Montreal), the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, and the Vocal Arts Society (Washington, DC). These concerts mark his first USA appearances since making a sensationally received debut at New York’s Frick Collection in January 2000.
Equally accomplished on the concert and opera stages, Stephan Genz has performed principal roles at La Scala; the Deutsche Oper Berlin; and the opera companies of Lausanne, Rennes, Strasbourg, and Paris (Bastille and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées). He has also collaborated with such conductors as Myung-Whun Chung, Pierre Cao, Marcus Creed, John Eliot Gardiner, Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Kuhn, Sigiswald Kuijken, Jesús López-Cobos, Fabio Luisi, Georges Prêtre, René Jacobs, and Giuseppe Sinopoli. In April 2002, he made his Hamburg State Opera debut as Guglielmo in W.A. Mozart’s Così fan tutte, appearing with his brother, tenor Christoph Genz (as Ferrando). In May 2004 he appeared at Bachfest Leipzig with Sigiswald Kuijken in a J.S. Bach & Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach programme (also documented on DVD).
Stephan Genz' recordings on the Teldec, Hyperion, Claves, and Capriccio labels include songs by Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, and L.v. Beethoven, the latter earning him a 1999 Gramophone Award. He has broadcast for Deutsche Well, Hessischen Rundfunk, Südwestfunk and the BBC. |
