Christoph Genz (born 1 March 1971 in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
) is a German tenor in opera and concert.
Career
Christoph Genz was a member of the
Thomanerchor
The Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig) is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. The choir comprises about 90 boys from 9 to 18 years of age. The members, called ''Thomaner'', reside in a boarding sch ...
. He studied music at
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...
, where he was a member of the King's College Choir. He studied voice with Hans-Joachim Beyer at the
Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig and with
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, (9 December 19153 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the op ...
. In 1996, he won the first prize of the
International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition
The International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (german: Internationaler Bach Wettbewerb Leipzig, links=no) is a music competition in Leipzig, Germany, held by the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. It was founded in 1950 and was held every four years from 1 ...
.
In 1997, he became a member of the
Theater Basel
Theater Basel is the municipal theatre of the city of Basel, Switzerland, which is home to the city's opera and ballet companies. The theatre also presents plays and musicals in addition to operas and operettas.
Because the theatre does not ha ...
. He appeared as a guest at theatres such as the
Teatro alla Scala, the
Semperoper
The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the ...
,
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris and the opera houses of Lausanne, Cologne, Nancy, Leipzig, Wiesbaden, La Coruna and others. In 2000, Genz sang for the first time at the
Hamburg State Opera. From 2001 to 2004 he was a member, singing parts such as Tamino in Mozart's ''
Die Zauberflöte
''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that includ ...
'', Belmonte in ''
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
' () ( K. 384; ''The Abduction from the Seraglio''; also known as ') is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's ''Belmont und Constanze, oder Di ...
'', 'Ferrando' in
Cosi fan tutte
Cosi, COSI or CoSi may refer to:
* '' Così'', a 1992 play by Louis Nowra
** ''Cosi'' (film), 1996, based on the play
* Così (restaurant), an American fast-casual restaurant chain
* Compton Spectrometer and Imager, or COSI, a NASA telescope to ...
, 'Don Ottavio' in
Don Giovanni, Chevalier in Poulenc's ''
Dialogues des Carmélites
' (''Dialogues of the Carmelites''), FP 159, is an opera in three acts, divided into twelve scenes with linking orchestral interludes, with music and libretto by Francis Poulenc, completed in 1956. The composer's second opera, Poulenc wrote the ...
'' and many more.
Genz has appeared under leading conductors such as
Herbert Blomstedt
Herbert Thorson Blomstedt (; born 11 July 1927) is a Swedish conductor.
Herbert Blomstedt was born in Massachusetts. Two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin. He studied at the Stockholm Roy ...
,
Giuseppe Sinopoli
Giuseppe Sinopoli (; 2 November 1946 – 21 April 2001) was an Italian conductor and composer.
Biography
Sinopoli was born in Venice, Italy, and later studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice under Ernesto Rubin de Cervi ...
,
Riccardo Chailly,
Kurt Masur
Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus O ...
, Sir
Simon Rattle,
Nicolaus Harnoncourt
Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt or historically Johann Nikolaus Graf de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt; () (6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) was an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of musi ...
,
Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner (born 20 April 1943) is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Life and career
Born in Fontmell Magna, Dorset, son of Rolf Gardiner and Marabel Hodgkin, Gard ...
,
Sir Roger Norrington
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington (born 16 March 1934) is an English conductor. He is known for historically informed performances of Baroque, Classical and Romantic music.
In November 2021 Norrington announced his retirement.
Life
No ...
,
Ton Koopman
Antonius Gerhardus Michael Koopman (; born 2 October 1944), known professionally as Ton Koopman, is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orches ...
,
Ingo Metzmacher
Ingo Metzmacher (born 10 November 1957 in Hanover) is a German conductor and artistic director of the festival KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover.
Life
Ingo Metzmacher is the son of the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher and the research biol ...
,
Kent Nagano
Kent George Nagano GOQ, MSM (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 202 ...
,
Ivor Bolton
Ivor Bolton
Ivor Bolton (born 17 May 1958) is an English conductor and harpsichordist.
Early life and education
Bolton was born in Blackrod, Greater Manchester, England. He studied at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn and Clare Co ...
,
Markus Stenz
Markus Stenz (born 28 February 1965, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a German conductor. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln with Volker Wangenhein and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.
Stenz has ...
,
Daniel Harding
Daniel John Harding (born 31 August 1975) is a British conductor.
Biography
Harding was born in Oxford. He studied trumpet at Chetham's School of Music and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra at age 13. At age 17, Harding assembled ...
,
Helmuth Rilling
Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933) is a German choral conductor and an academic teacher. He is the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970),
the Internationale Bachakademie ...
,
Michail Jurowski
Michail Vladimirovich Jurowski (; 25 December 1945 – 19 March 2022) was a Russian conductor who worked internationally, based in Germany for most of his career. He was particularly interested in the works of Dmitri Shostakovich, in concerts a ...
,
Masaaki Suzuki
is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for wh ...
and others.
His discography contains more than 60 CDs and DVDs including operas, concerts, songs and arias. He recorded
Bach cantata
The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas (German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest cant ...
s with
Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner (born 20 April 1943) is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Life and career
Born in Fontmell Magna, Dorset, son of Rolf Gardiner and Marabel Hodgkin, Gard ...
and sang the tenor roles in
La Petite Bande
La Petite Bande is a Belgium-based ensemble specialising in music of the Baroque and Classical eras played on period instruments. They are particularly known for their recordings of works by Corelli, Rameau, Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart.
His ...
's Complete Bach Cantatas conducted by
Sigiswald Kuijken
Sigiswald Kuijken (; born 16 February 1944) is a Belgian violinist, violist, and conductor known for playing on period and original instruments.
Biography
Kuijken was born in Dilbeek, near Brussels. He was a member of the Alarius Ensemble ...
recorded between 2006 and 2011, as well as the ''
St John Passion'' conducted by
Ludwig Güttler
Ludwig Güttler (born 13 June 1943) is an internationally known German virtuoso on the Baroque trumpet, the piccolo trumpet and the corno da caccia. As a conductor, he founded several ensembles including the chamber orchestra Virtuosi Saxoniae. ...
, the ''
St Matthew Passion'' and the ''
Mass in B minor'' with La Petite Bande conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken. In 2005, he appeared with La Petite Bande in a concert of Bach cantatas at the
Rheingau Musik Festival
The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...
in the
Eibingen Abbey
Eibingen Abbey (german: Abtei St. Hildegard, full name: Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard) is a community of Benedictine nuns in Eibingen near Rüdesheim in Hesse, Germany. Founded by Hildegard of Bingen in 1165, it was dissolved in 1804, but ...
, together with
Siri Thornhill
Siri Karoline Thornhill is a Norwegian classical soprano for concert and opera, known for singing music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Career
Thornhill studied singing first in her hometown Stavanger with Marit Storækre and continued with a scholar ...
,
Petra Noskaiová and
Jan van der Crabben.
He performed in Mendelssohn's ''
Lobgesang
''Lobgesang'' (''Hymn of Praise''), Op. 52 ( MWV A 18), is an 11-movement "Symphony-Cantata on Words of the Holy Bible for Soloists, Choir and Orchestra" by Felix Mendelssohn. After the composer's death it was published as his Symphony No. 2 ...
'', conducted by
Helmuth Rilling
Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933) is a German choral conductor and an academic teacher. He is the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970),
the Internationale Bachakademie ...
. He sang the part of Brighella in a recording of ''
Ariadne auf Naxos
(''Ariadne on Naxos''), Op. 60, is a 1912 opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The opera's unusual combination of elements of low commedia dell'arte with those of high opera seria points up one of the work's ...
'' of Richard Strauss, with the
Staatskapelle Dresden and
Giuseppe Sinopoli
Giuseppe Sinopoli (; 2 November 1946 – 21 April 2001) was an Italian conductor and composer.
Biography
Sinopoli was born in Venice, Italy, and later studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice under Ernesto Rubin de Cervi ...
and the part of Tamino in a recording with Sigiswald Kuijken. He performed the ''Mass in B minor'' also with the
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...
, conducted by both
Herbert Blomstedt
Herbert Thorson Blomstedt (; born 11 July 1927) is a Swedish conductor.
Herbert Blomstedt was born in Massachusetts. Two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin. He studied at the Stockholm Roy ...
and
Georg Christoph Biller
Georg Christoph Biller (20 September 1955 – 27 January 2022) was a German choral conductor. He conducted the Thomanerchor as the sixteenth Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach from 1992 to 2015. He was also a baritone, an academic teacher, ...
.
From 2017 - 2022 Genz was working as Head of Arts Department, Music teacher and Dean of Faculty a
UWC Changshu in China which is part of the group of
United World Colleges
United World Colleges (UWC) is an international network of schools and educational programmes with the shared aim of "making education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future." The organization was founde ...
. He is currently working as Director of Performing Arts at
United World College of the Adriatic
United World College of the Adriatic (''UWC Adriatic'' or ''UWCAd'' ) is a part of the United World Colleges, a global educational movement that brings together students from all over the world with the aim to foster peace and international un ...
in Duino, Italy, where he is also teaching Music.
References
External links
*
Entries for recordings by Christoph Genzon
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Genz, Christoph
German operatic tenors
1971 births
Living people
Musicians from Erfurt
21st-century German male opera singers