Deon van der Walt

The South African tenor, Deon van der Walt, studied singing at the University of Stellenbosch and made his debut as Jaquino in „Fidelio“ at Cape Town Opera House even before graduating. Numerous scholarships and awards allowed him to continue his studies abroad. In 1981 he won the “International Mozart Competition” in Salzburg.His first formal engagement took him to Gelsenkirchen, then to Stuttgart and Zürich. In 1985, he was invited to perform at Covent Garden in London and there made his debut as Almaviva in Rossini’s “Barber of Seville”.Since then, Deon van der Walt has ranked among the world‘s leading lyric tenors and has performed at all the world‘s major opera houses, such as La Scala Milan, the Hamburg and Vienna State Opera as well as the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Liceo in Barcelona and the Met in New York. He has also performed at numerous international festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, where he has sung Belmonte in “The Abduction from the Seraglio” and Ferrando in “Così fan tutte” under Riccardo Muti. One highlight of his career was in Mozart Year 1991, when he took the part of Tamino in the “Magic Flute” under the baton of Sir Georg Solti.Deon van der Walt gives numerous concerts and specializes in recital performances. In addition to the conductors already mentioned, he has worked together with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ferdinand Leitner, Horst Stein, Karl-Friedrich Beringer, Lorin Maazel, James Levine and Christian Thielemann – to name but a few.