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This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works.
During his studies under Paul Kuen and Raimund Grumbach, German baritone Christian Gerhaher attended the Opera School of the Academy of Music in Munich and, together with his regular piano partner Gerold Huber, studied lied interpretation with Friedemann Berger. While completing his medical studies Christian Gerhaher perfected his vocal training in master-classes given by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Inge Borkh. In the meantime Christian Gerhaher is himself an enthusiastic teacher and holds an honorary professorship at the Academy of Music in Munich.
Christian Gerhaher’s exemplary lied interpretations with Gerold Huber set standards—their recordings have repeatedly won prizes. The lied duo can be heard on the stages of major international recital centres, for instance at the Wigmore Hall in London, in the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein in Vienna. Christian Gerhaher is a regular guest at festivals such as the Munich Opera Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the London Proms, the Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals as well as the Salzburg Festival. After the world premiere of Heinz Holliger’s cycle Lunea on 23 fragments by Nikolaus Lenauin spring 2013in Zurich, the 2013–14 season sees two further world premieres, both dedicated to Christian Gerhaher: JörgWidmann’s Das heißeHerz, followed by performances in Vienna, Frankfurt, London and Luxembourg (combined with Schumann and Fauré) as well as Goethe’s Harzreiseim Winter by Wolfgang Rihm, a program contrasting settings of Goethe texts by Wolfgang Rihm and Franz Schubert. The world premiere was given at the Würzburg Mozart Festival in June 2014, further performances follow at the Rheingau Music Festival and the Salzburg Festival, and in the autumn in Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Florence and at the Schubertiade in Hohenems.
Besides his principle activity giving concerts and recitals, Christian Gerhaher is also a highly sought-after performer on the opera stage. Under Riccardo Muti he sang Papageno in a production of The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival (issued by Decca as a DVD). Gerhaher gave guest performances in the title role in Henze’s Prinz von Homburg at the Theater an der Wien, as Wolfram at the Teatro Real in Madrid, at the Vienna State Opera and Munich State Opera, and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, where he received the famous Laurence Olivier Award for his interpretation. Roles such as Mozart’s Don Giovanni, again in Frankfurt—where he has already sung Orfeo, Wolfram, Eisenstein and Pelléas—Posa in Don Carlo in Toulouse or concert performances as Olivier in Capriccio at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden testify to Gerhaher’s broad repertoire. Wolfram remains a constant role in his calendar in the opera houses in Berlin, Vienna, London and Munich. During the Munich Opera Festival in 2014 he can again be heard in the title role in a new production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo.
Christian Gerhaher performs together with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Mariss Jansons, Daniel Harding, Bernard Haitink and Christian Thielemann in the world’s major concert halls. Gerhaher’s intensive preoccupation with the music of Gustav Mahler brought him together with Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel and Pierre Boulez (Wunderhornlieder with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, also on CD, issued by DG). Major orchestras which regularly invite Christian Gerhaher to perform include the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. He also gives concerts with major orchestras outside Europe, for instance with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Christian Gerhaher has very close ties with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a partnership audiences were able to enjoy in the 2012–13 season during his residency with the orchestra. Together with this outstanding ensemble, conducted by Daniel Harding, Christian Gerhaher recorded his first album of arias devoted to opera in the German Romantic era and for which he received the International Opera Award 2013. In the 2013–14 season Christian Gerhaher was a particularly frequent guest in Berlin, the first time a singer has been artist in residence with the Berlin Philharmonic. Many concerts show how versatile the lyric baritone is, beginning with Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer conducted by Simon Rattle, Schumann’s Faust Scenes with Daniel Harding, Bach’s St. John Passion and the Schubert cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise accompanied by Gerold Huber, as well as Schoeck’s Notturno and Fauré’s La bonne chanson with a quartet from the Scharoun Ensemble. During the 2014–15 season Christian Gerhaher has a residency at the Gesellschaftder Musikfreunde in Vienna and can be heard with the Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Kirill Petrenko (Hartmann’s Gesangsszene), with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (German Romantic arias) and in a Mahler recital in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. This program can also be heard in London, Paris, Essen and at the Salzburg Festival.
Christian Gerhaher’s CDs are issued by Sony Music, with which he has an exclusive partnership. Accompanied by Gerold Huber, Schumann cycles, all the Schubert cycles, as well as many other lied recordings have been issued. Furthermore, Christian Gerhaher can be heard on CDs with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Concentus Musicus Wien in works by Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Humperdinck, Orff and Mahler, whereby this list is far from complete. Of primary importance to Christian Gerhaher is the music of Robert Schumann—both Paradiesund die Peri and in particular his interpretation of Scenes from Goethe’s Faust were recorded live and are available on CDs issued by Sony and RCO live, and will also be issued very soon on the BR Klassik Label. In January 2014 Christian Gerhaher received the German record critics’ honorary prize Nachtigall 2014.
Christian Gerhaher and his wife live with their three children in Munich.
Munich-born Gerold Huber was awarded a scholarship to study piano under Friedemann Berger at the Musikhochschule in Munich. He also attended Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s lied class in Berlin. In 1998 he was awarded the Prix International Pro Musicis in Paris / New York together with baritone Christian Gerhaher, his regular duo partner since their joint schooldays. In 2001 he was a prize-winner at the Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition in Saarbrücken.
“His sensitive interludes are to die for. The pianist uncovers the subtle network of a comedy of errors and succeeds in penetrating the depths of the soul.” This is the sort of enthusiastic press reaction prompted by Gerold Huber’s piano accompaniment. In the role of lied pianist he regularly appears at festivals such as Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Vilabertran (Spain), Schwetzingen Festival and Rheingau Music Festival and major venues including Philharmonie Cologne, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg, Frick Collection in New York and Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Being so high in demand as accompanist, Gerold Huber works with a multitude of internationally renowned singers, amongst them Mojca Erdmann, Christiane Karg, Christina Landshamer, Ruth Ziesak, Maximilian Schmitt, Rolando Villazón and Franz-Josef Selig. Moreover he is the pianist of vocal ensemble Liedertafel, founded in 2002, which consists of Markus Schäfer, Christian Elsner, Michael Volle and Franz-Josef Selig. Gerold Huber also performs chamber music with the Artemis Quartet, Henschel Quartet and with Reinhold Friedrich.
Gerold Huber’s activities as a soloist focus on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert. He has given recitals in Munich, Regensburg, at the Théâtre Municipal des Romains in France, at the Kultursommer Kassel Festival and the New Zealand Festival in Wellington. With actor Hanns ZIschler, he appeared in an evening of melodrama at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
Apart from two solo albums with works by Beethoven and Schumann, he is most renowned for his outstanding recordings with baritone Christian Gerhaher. They received Echo Klassik Awards for Best Lied Recording for both Die Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin. The Schubert CD Abendbilder was honoured with the Gramophone Award in 2006. Further releases of this prestigious lied duo include Schumann Melancholie for RCA Red Seal (Gramophone Award in 2009), Lieder by Gustav Mahler (various awards including Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2010) as well as Wolf’s Italian Songbook where they were joined by Mojca Erdmann and, most recently, the compilation Ferne Geliebte—a juxtaposition of both Viennese schools with works by Beethoven/Haydn and Schönberg/Berg (all for Sony). His extensive discography also includes Schubert lieder with Bernarda Fink (Schubert for harmonia mundi France), Ruth Ziesak (Liszt for Berlin classics; Haydn and Mahler/Zemlinsky for Capriccio, Mendelssohn for AVI) and recordings with Maximilian Schmitt (Clara and Robert Schumann/Schubert Die schöne Müllerin) for Oehms classic. He will continue his collaboration with Christian Gerhaher for Sony with a Schubert disc, recordings with Franz-Josef Selig (AVI) and Christina Landshamer (Oehms classcis) will also be released in the future.
Gerold Huber gives master-classes with increasing frequency, most recently at the University of Yale, the Aldeburgh Festival as well as at the Schwetzingen Festival. Since 2013 he has been a professor for lied accompaniment at the Hochschule für Musik in Wurzburg.
Article and Photo Sourced From: http://sfperformances.org/performances/1415/ChristianGerhaher.html
Here's a list of shows to see this summer out there where Ygancia Valley meets Kirker Pass.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, headlines the Saturday night show, with Kanye West, and The Killers headlining the Sunday and Friday respectively. 