Daniel Johannsen

Born in 1978, the Austrian tenor is one of the most sought-after Evangelists and Bach interpreters of his generation. After completing his training as a church musician, he studied voice with Margit Klaushofer and Robert Holl in Vienna. He participated in master classes with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Nicolai Gedda and Christa Ludwig and was a prizewinner at the Bach, Schumann, Mozart, Hilde Zadek and Wigmore Hall Competitions.

Since his debut in 1998, appearances as a concert, lieder and opera singer have taken him to the major musical centres of Europe, North America, Japan and the Middle East, where he sings works from every period. In addition to regular concerts at the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, he appears at leading festivals (Styriarte Festival in Graz, Salzburg Festival, Carinthian Summer, Israel Festival, La Folle Journée, International Herrenchiemsee Festival, several international Bach festivals). He performs under such distinguished conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, Bertrand de Billy, Jordi Savall and Enoch zu Guttenberg with various ensembles, including Le Concert des Nations, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Daniel Johannsen is also involved in several large-scale Bach cantata projects.

The lyric tenor is engaged by such theatres as the Munich State Theater on Gärtnerplatz, the Leipzig Opera, the Vienna Volksoper, the Lucerne Theater, the Bonn Opera and the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, where he is heard in Mozart roles, Baroque, 20th-century and contemporary works as well as several operetta roles.

Song recitals featuring the entire range of German repertoire, in addition to English and French compositions, are a central focus in the work of the singer, who collaborates with such pianists as Simon Bucher, David Lutz, Gerold Huber and Helmut Deutsch. Daniel Johannsen’s recording of the Dichterliebe was released in spring of 2010, following his first solo CD, Tenore & Traverso with arias by J. S. Bach, which received the ORFPasticcio Award. In addition, numerous other recordings, radio and television broadcasts document his creative output.

During the 2013/14 season Daniel Johannsen appears at the Leipzig Bach Festival under Trevor Pinnock. He will give lieder and chamber music recitals at the Carinthian Summer and the Hugo Wolf Academy in Stuttgart. He sings the title role in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring at the Vienna Volksoper and appears in a contemporary adaptation of Henry Purcell’s King Arthur at the Theater an der Wien. In the 2014/15 season he makes his debut singing the role of Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail under Michael Hofstetter at the season premiere of the Giessen Theater. Concerts will take him to the Munich Philharmonie, Brucknerhaus in Linz and the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

4/2013