Johannes Martin Kränzle

Source: artistsman.com

Johannes Martin Kränzle has developed into one of the leading cavalier and character baritone singers of his generation. He is a regular guest at major theatres such as the Salzburg, Bayreuth and Bregenz Festivals, La Scala in Milan, the Glyndebourne and Lucerne Festivals, opera houses in London, Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, San Francisco, Cairo, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Toronto. He made his successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 2014.
The singer also composes. In 1997, his chamber opera DER WURM was honoured and premiered at the composition competition in Berlin, and since 2016 his composition LIEDER UM LIEBE has been performed numerous times in Germany and abroad. He received a composition grant from the German Music Council for MUTATIONES, a suite for string orchestra, which will be premiered by the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden in 2022 to great acclaim.

Johannes Martin Kränzle, born in Augsburg, initially studied violin and music theatre directing and, after studying singing with Martin Gründler at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, was a member of the ensemble at the opera houses in Dortmund (1987-91), Hanover (1991-97) and Frankfurt (1998-2016). The baritone has been named ‘Singer of the Year’ twice, in 2011 and 2018, in the renowned OPERNWELT critics’ poll. In 2011 he received the Cologne Opera Prize, in 2019 the most important German theatre prize DER FAUST. He has won prizes at the international singing competitions in Vercelli (Viotti), Perpignan and Paris (Operalia Placido Domingo). Since winning the Primo Grande Premio in Rio de Janeiro in 1991, he has been an honorary guest professor in Natal, Brazil, and a guest professor at the Cologne University of Music in 2013-19.

His repertoire comprises over 130 roles and ranges from Handel, Rossini, Verdi, Strauss and Lehar to Berg, Bartok, Henze and Rihm.
( -Dionysus première: Salzburg Festival 2010).He specialises in Mozart, Wagner and the Slavic repertoire: Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Prokofiev, Janacek.He has worked with conductors as diverse as Barenboim, Janowski, A. and P. Jordan, M. and V. Jurowsky, Levine, Luisi, Mallwitz, Mazzola, Mälkki, Pappano, Petrenko, Shani, Thielemann, and directors such as Brieger, Kosky, Kupfer, Loy, McVickar, Tscherniakov, Warner and Wieler.

He has released three solo song CDs entitled DIE MITTERNACHT ZOG NÄHER SCHON with ballads, GRENZEN DER MENSCHHEIT with songs by Schubert and Schumann and just recently in 2018 DAS EWIGE RÄTSEL (German Record Critics’ Award) with Yiddish songs by R.R. Klein and works by Mahler, Frank Martin and Ravel.
His accompanist is Hilko Dumno.Numerous DVDs also document his extensive operatic oeuvre.
He regularly gives recitals at the Schleswig-Holstein-Festival, Goethe-Haus Frankfurt, Expo 2000 Hannover, Schubertiada Villabertran, among others. He performs Schubert’s DIE WINTERREISE at the Kammerspiel Frankfurt. Bach’s CHRISTMAS ORATORIUM in Notre Dame Paris, Bach’s SOLO CANTATAS in the Dormition Abbey Jerusalem and in the Cathedral of Salvador /Bahia in Brazil, Mahler’s SONGS OF A DRIVING SOCIETY at the Budapest Spring Festival and Britten’s War Requiem at the Vilnius Festival. He is the baritone in Brahms IN GERMAN REQUIEM at the Maggio Musicale in Florence (Jeffrey Tate’s last concert) and at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (Bernhard Haitink). In 2015, he was diagnosed with an aggressively progressive form of the bone marrow disease MDS and had to undergo a stem cell transplant. His brother Andreas can be his life-saving donor.

He will soon make his role debut as SAINT FRANCOIS D’ASSISE in Hamburg, and will sing Eisenstein (DIE FLEDERMAUS) in Vienna, Don Alfonso in Munich and Duke Bluebeard (Bartok) in Boston, one of his core repertoire roles, which he has already sung with the greatest orchestras (Berlin, New York, Rotterdam Philharmonic, etc.).