Prof. Markus Schäfer

Biography

• Marcus Schäfer studied singing with Armand McLane and sacred music in Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf
• He won the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang (Germany) and the Caruso Competition in Mailand.
• He gave his debut as a member of the Opernstudio Zürich, before becoming a member of the ensemble there.
• He moved on to the Hamburger Staatsoper and then was at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf until 1993.

Since then, he has been in demand since as a free-lance singer with guest performances and concert tours to many famous opera houses and festivals. His increasing interest in teaching resulted in being called to a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in 2008.

In developing his singing career, tenor Markus Schäfer has taken great care to balance opera, oratorio and Lied, the music of various periods from classical to contemporary music, work with the modern symphony orchestra and international Baroque ensembles in order to guard against being limited to a specific genre or Fach. His career includes comic and lyric roles; his versatility enables him to sing both Italian repertoire such as Rossini or Donizetti opera, as well as the German Mozartfach and including dramatic works such as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. His experience also includes the French Haute Contre Fach with works by Rameau. His interpretations include Bach Cantatas and the Evangelists both with Baroque ensembles and modern orchestras, Mozart and Schubert songs sung with Hammerflügel or Reger, Killmayer and Rihm with a modern grand piano.

He also loves ensemble singing with groups such as Liedertafel or Schubert hoch 4.  In recent years, Lied singing and teaching have taken a central place in his work.

Mr. Schäfer has often sung the Mozart roles Ferrando, Ottavio or Tamino in houses such as the Staatsopern in Berlin and Münich. His specialites include furthermore the Bach Evangelists which he has sung at festivals in Ansbach, Leipzig and Lucern. He has worked with innumberable conductors, among them René Jacobs, Sigiswald Kuijken, Franz Brüggen, Paul McCreesh, Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Phillip Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Martin Haselböck, Michael Gielen, Stephan Soltesz, Kent Nagano, Fabio Luisi, and Herbert Blomstedt.

Mr. Schäfer’s artistry is documented in many CD and radio recordings among them a recording of Cosi fan tutte with S. Kuijken and the orchestra La petite bande, and of the Matthäus-Passion with Nicolas Harnoncourt and Concentus musicus Wien, which was awarded a Grammy. He has been celebrated as a Lied singer in Vienna, at the Schubertiade in Feldkirch and in Schwarzenberg, as well as in New York, where he performed a Schubert/Schumann recital with accompanist Hartmut Holl.

At the Salzburg Osterfestspiele , he  sang Schubert`s Mass in Eb under Charles Mackerras, as well as Henze`s Kammermusik 58 for Tenor and Ensemble with the Sharoun Ensemble.

He recently gave Lied recitals at the Wigmore hall, London and Mebourne Recital hall, performed together with Andras Schiff, Piers Lane and Tobias Koch. He performed at the Styriarte festival Graz  with Harnoncourt in Barbe Bleu by Offenbach.

Recent CDs

• Secular canatas by Bach: Angenehmes Wiederau and others (BWV 30a & 207) with Gustav Leonhardt
• As Midas in Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan with Hans-Jörg Albrecht /Münchner Bachchor)
• Mozart’s Singspiel: Zaide in a new augmented edition with the Wiener Akademie conducted by M. Haselböck for CPO
• Beethoven: All Symphonies with the orchestera anima aeterna under Jos v. Immerseel
• Die Schöne Müllerin by F. Schubert and L. Berger on a Fritz Hammerflügel accompanied by Tobias Koch
• Complete Lieder-edition from Peter Cornelius with pianist Matthias Veit