Markus Schäfer

The tenor Markus Schäfer studied with Marga Plachner, Armand McLane and Evelyn Dalberg. Following his attendance at the Opera Studio in Zürich, his first professional engagement was at the Opernhaus Zürich in 1985. Since then guest appearances have taken Markus Schäfer to many a prestigious musical location – the Salzburger Festspiele, the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, La Fenice in Venice, Liceo in Barcelona and the state opera in Munich, to name but a few. He has undertaken principal roles in various operas by Mozart, Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Hasse and Rolle. Markus Schäfer worked closely with René Jacobs and the Concerto Köln at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, on Cosi fan tutte, and Krösus by Keiser. He has often toured and recorded with the Baroque ensemble La Petite Bande (Sigiswald Kuijken) works such as Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni and Mozart's Requiem. At the moment, he is playing Tamino in Harry Kupfer's production of Die Zauberflöte at the Berlin Comic Opera. Highlights of his concert career have been the recording of the St Matthew Passion with Leonhardt (Deutsch Harmonia Mundi/BMG) and the recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Windsbacher Knabenchor for television and CD. In 1997, Markus Schäfer sang the Evangelist in Bach's St John Passion under the direction of Karl-Friedrich Beringer during the Ansbach Bach Week. As a singer of Lieder, Markus Schäfer has performed Schubert, Schumann and Wolf together with Harmut Höll at the Wolf-Gesellschaft in Stuttgart and also in the Lincoln Center, New York. The Heimkehr – taken from Heinrich Heine's Reisebilder (series of travel poems) and set to music by Vesque von Püttlingen (1803-1883) – will shortly be released by Signum, featuring Markus Schäfer and Christian De Bruyn.