During his studies with Paul Kuën and Raimund Grumbach at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, Christian Gerhaher attended the opera school and studied Lied interpretation with Friedemann Berger. Alongside his medical studies, he further developed his vocal artistry through masterclasses with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Inge Borkh. Today, together with Gerold Huber, he leads a Lied class at the University of Music and Theatre Munich and is also Honorary Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
For more than three decades, Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber have dedicated themselves to the art of Lied interpretation. Their award-winning partnership is regarded as one of the world’s leading Lied duos, and they regularly perform at the most prestigious concert venues across Europe and North America, including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Berliner Philharmonie, Teatro alla Scala Milan and the Cité de la Musique Paris. They are also frequent guests at renowned festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Lucerne Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Rheingau Music Festival and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
As a concert and oratorio singer, Christian Gerhaher regularly collaborates with leading conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt, Daniel Harding, Kirill Petrenko, Christian Thielemann, Antonio Pappano, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, Andris Nelsons and Mariss Jansons. His most important artistic partners include the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. He was the first singer ever to be appointed Artist in Residence of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Christian Gerhaher is also recognised as one of the defining baritones of his generation on the opera stage. His achievements have been honoured with numerous awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award and the German theatre prize “Der Faust”. His core repertoire includes Amfortas (Parsifal), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Figaro and Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), as well as the title roles in L’Orfeo, Don Giovanni, Pelléas et Mélisande, Simon Boccanegra and Der Prinz von Homburg. A landmark in his operatic career was his portrayal of Wozzeck in Andreas Homoki’s acclaimed Zurich production in 2015. Most recently, he expanded his Wagner repertoire with the role of Wotan in Das Rheingold at the Salzburg Easter Festival under the baton of Kirill Petrenko.
In the 2026/27 season, Christian Gerhaher opens the season as Amfortas in a new production of Parsifal at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden under Jakub Hrůša and directed by Evgeny Titov. He will also perform the same role at the Bavarian State Opera. At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, he appears in Humperdinck’s Königskinder under Christian Thielemann. Concert highlights of the season include Britten’s War Requiem with the Vienna Philharmonic under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at the Musikverein Vienna, further performances in Barcelona under Jonathan Nott, and a tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He also returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko and to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. With Mendelssohn’s Elias, he performs in Paris under Daniel Harding, and he sings Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Jakub Hrůša. Together with Gerold Huber, he continues to appear in Lied recitals throughout Europe and the United States.
As an exclusive artist of Sony Classical, Christian Gerhaher has released numerous highly acclaimed recordings. Together with Gerold Huber, he has recorded the complete song cycles of Schubert, Schumann and Mahler, as well as the complete songs of Robert Schumann. Further releases include Othmar Schoeck’s Elegie, Wolfgang Rihm’s Stabat Mater, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and an album of selected Brahms songs released in 2025, for which he received the OPUS KLASSIK award. In 2022, he published Lyrisches Tagebuch, a collection of essays on Lied interpretation, with C. H. Beck.
Christian Gerhaher lives in Munich with his wife and their three children.