Bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann, who grew up in southern Baden and received his early musical training as a member of the Basel Boys’ Choir, studied with Ingeborg Most in Freiburg, Rudolf Piernay in Mannheim and in the Lied class of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin. While still a student, the three-time international competition winner was invited by Daniel Barenboim to join the ensemble of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, where he remained for thirteen years. During his tenure, he performed the major Mozart roles of his repertoire, while also appearing as Kaspar (Der Freischütz), Amfortas (Parsifal), Escamillo (Carmen), Banquo (Macbeth), Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande), Wotan (Das Rheingold) and Count (Der ferne Klang). He also took part in the world premieres of Elliott Carter’s What Next? and Pascal Dusapin’s Faustus, the Last Night. In Berlin, he worked with conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Gielen, Philippe Jordan, René Jacobs, Sir Simon Rattle and Sebastian Weigle.

Guest engagements have taken him to the state opera houses of Hamburg, Vienna and Munich, the Theater an der Wien, as well as to Madrid, Seville and San Francisco. With the Cleveland Orchestra, he appeared as Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande and as the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos under Franz Welser-Möst. His recording of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte under Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon), in which he sings Papageno, received the Gramophone Award for Opera Recording of the Year.

A distinguished concert singer, Hanno Müller-Brachmann has collaborated with leading orchestras and conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, Maxim Emelyanychev, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Vladimir Jurowski, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Andris Nelsons, Gianandrea Noseda, Kirill Petrenko and Sir András Schiff. A particularly close artistic partnership united him with Bernard Haitink in performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan. With the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, he opened the 2014 Salzburg Festival with Haydn’s The Creation; their recording of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis received the 2016 Gramophone Award. In 2017, he participated in the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Requiem-Strophen under Mariss Jansons.

An acclaimed recital artist, Müller-Brachmann has appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and festivals including Edinburgh, Hitzacker, Lockenhaus, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. His recent recordings include Auf jenen Höh’n (Dabringhaus&Grimm), Schubert’s Schwanengesang on period fortepiano (Pan Classics), Brahms songs with Dame Sarah Connolly and Malcolm Martineau (Linn), and Georg Schumann’s oratorio Ruth (cpo), which was selected as Recording of the Month by Fono Forum. His recording of songs by Rudi Stephan received the OPUS KLASSIK Award in 2018.

Since 2011, Hanno Müller-Brachmann has served as Professor of Voice at the Karlsruhe University of Music. He is also a jury member for international singing competitions and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), and Honorary Chairman of the Karlsruhe boys’ and girls’ choir Cantus Juvenum.

Highlights of the previous season included Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at Teatro alla Scala under Fabio Luisi and a European tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer, performing Wotan’s Farewell from Wagner’s Die Walküre.

In the Beethoven anniversary year of 2026/27, the composer’s music forms the centrepiece of Hanno Müller-Brachmann’s international concert activities. He opens the season with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Iván Fischer, followed by a major European tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra performing the Ninth Symphony in Brussels, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Lucerne and Budapest. Further Beethoven engagements include performances of the Ninth Symphony in Strasbourg as well as Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Würth Philharmonic Orchestra in Künzelsau and with the hr-Sinfonieorchester at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper.

Continuing his acclaimed Wagner collaborations with Kent Nagano, he appears as Fafner in Wagner’s Siegfried at the Vienna Konzerthaus as part of The Wagner Cycles. Sacred repertoire remains another important focus of the season, including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in Baden-Baden and the St John Passion under Fabio Luisi in Dallas. The season is further complemented by recital appearances and masterclasses in Italy.