Biography

Tenor Christoph Prégardien is best known for his performance of lieder, opera, and oratorio. He has won several awards for his recordings. He has also established himself as a conductor and educator. Prégardien was born in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany, on January 18, 1956. He 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. He has built up a major reputation as a concert artist, performing the oratorios and passions of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. Prégardien's repertoire also encompasses the works of 17th century composers Monteverdi, Schütz, and Purcell, and 20th 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, Prégardien has given performances in many major venues, among them London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Montpellier, and Tokyo. His roles have included such characters as Monteverdi's Ulisse, Mozart's Tamino and Don Ottavio, and Rossini's Count Almaviva. Prégardien's 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, Prégardien embarked on a major recording career. His outstanding achievements as a lieder singer have been acknowledged with numerous awards, such as the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Award, Diapason D'or de l'année, and the Cannes Classical Award, among others. Since 2012, Prégardien has worked as a conductor with Le Concert Lorrain, the Nederlands Kammerkoor, the Duisburger Philharmoniker, and Collegium Vocale Gent. He taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich, the Academy of Music in Cologne, and has given master classes throughout the world. Prégardien and Andreas Staier performed together internationally beginning in 1991, and in 1997, they signed an exclusive contract with Teldec. Their debut album for the label, Schubert's Winterreise, won numerous awards as well as being chosen for the German Record Critics' Quarterly List. His other favorite piano partner is Michael Gees, with whom he released Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin in 2008. Other releases by Prégardien have included an album of songs by Beethoven and his contemporaries Nikolaus von Krufft and Franz Lachner, Brahms' Die schöne Magelone, a recording of duets with his son Julian in 2014, and an album of Schumann and Wagner lieder in 2019.