Christoph Prégardien

Tenor Christoph Prégardien began his musical education at the Limburg Cathedral Choir School. He went on to study at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule with Martin Gründeler, and later with Carla Castellani in Milan, Karlheinz Jarius in Frankfurt, and Alois Treml in Stuttgart.

Prégardien has built up a major reputation as a concert artist, performing the oratorios and Passions of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. His repertoire also encompasses the works of seventeenth century composers Monteverdi, Schütz, and Purcell, and twentieth century composers Britten, Stravinsky, Killmayer, and Rihm. Among the conductors he has performed and recorded with are Brüggen, Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Hogwood, Jacobs, Koopman, Kuijken, Leonhardt, and Rilling.

As an operatic tenor, he has given performances in many major venues, among them London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Montpellier, and Tokyo. His roles have included such characters as Monterverdi's Ulisse, Mozart's Tamino and Don Ottavio, and Rossini's Count Almaviva.

His special love is lieder, which he studied at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule in classes with Hartmut Höll. After the great success of his first lieder recordings he embarked on a major recording career. His outstanding achievements as lieder singer have been acknowledged by numerous awards, such as the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Award, Diapason D'or de l'année and the Cannes Classical Award, among others.

Prégardien and Andreas Staier have performed together internationally since 1991, and in 1997 they signed an exclusive contract with Teldec. Their début CD for the label, Schubert's Winterreise, won numerous awards including the Caecilia Prize, the Edison Award, a Diapason d'Or, and a Choc du Monde de la Musique, as well as being chosen for the German Record Critics' Quarterly List. His other favorite piano partner is Michael Gees. Other releases by Prégardien have included a CD of songs by Beethoven and his contemporaries Nikolaus von Krufft and Franz Lachner, and Brahms' Die schöne Magelone.