Biography
The Erfurt-born tenor Christoph Genz received his first musical training as a member of the St. Thomas’ Boys Choir in Leipzig. He continued his studies in musicology at King’s College Cambridge where he was also a member of King’s College Choir. He studied voice under Hans-Joachim Beyer at the Hoschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig and with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
He won first prize at the International Singing Competition in Grimsby, England and the first prize at the International J.S.Bach-Competition in Leipzig. Christoph Genz has been engaged for concerts, recitals and opera productions in Europe, Asia and the USA collaborating with such distinguished conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Simon Rattle, Kurt Masur, Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Ton Koopmann, Ingo Metzmacher, Marek Janowski, Markus Stenz, Ludwig Güttler, Daniel Harding, Ivor Bolton, Frans Bruggen, Marcus Creed, Thomas Hengelbrock, Helmut Rilling, Jesus Lopez-Coboz, Sigiswald Kuijken, Michail Jurowski, Peter Schreier.
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He has made numerous recordings, among them Bach Cantatas under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Reinhard Goebel, Helmut Rilling and Sigiswald Kuijken, Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos under Giuseppe Sinopoli, Bach’s Johannes-Passion under Ludwig Güttler, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang-Symphonie under Helmut Rilling, Solo-CDs with arias from Bach cantatas and arias from Handel operas and oratorios, and CDs with songs by Schubert, Haydn, Mozart and lute songs from the 17th and 18th century.
The singer appears regularly at prestigious festivals including the Schubertiade at Hohenems/Feldkirch, the May Festival in Wiesbaden, the Lucerne Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Sviatoslav Richter Festival in Moscow. He has given recitals at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Louvre in Paris, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Christoph Genz was a member of the ensemble of the Basel Theater during the 1997/98 season. Guest engagements followed, among them Opera de Nancy (Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte), Theatre des Champs-Elysee, Paris (Tamino in Die Zauberflöte), Opera de Lausanne, Teatro alla Scala (under Giuseppe Sinopoli), Semperoper Dresden (Ferrando, Belmonte), La Coruna (Tamino), and the opera houses in Leipzig, Cologne and Wiesbaden.
From 2001 to 2004 he was an ensemble member of the Hamburg State Opera where he appeared in numerous lyric tenor roles.
In April 2006 he sang the role of ‘Christ’ in a production of Mozart’s Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots under Nicolaus Harnoncourt at the Theater an der Wien. In 2007 he performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah under Herbert Blomstedt with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s Matthew Passion under Riccardo Chailly with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Haydn’s Seasons under Sir Roger Norrington in Boston. In the season 2007/8 he performed the three Schubert song-cycles in the Gewandhaus Leipzig.
Plans for 2009 include performances of Bach’s b-minor mass in Montreal under Kent Nagano, performances of Mendelssohn’s Paulus under Marek Janowski in Berlin and under Herbert Blomstedt with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, tours of Bach’s St.John’s Passion (with Rias Chamber Choir), Bach’s Matthew Passion with Sigiswald Kuijken.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.