Christian Gerhaher studied at the Munich University of Music under Paul Kuën and Raimund Grumbach, where he attended the opera school and studied song interpretation with Friedemann Berger. In addition to his medical studies, he enhanced his vocal training through masterclasses with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Inge Borkh. Currently, he co-teaches a class in song interpretation at the Munich University of Music and Theater with Gerold Huber and also teaches occasionally at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Gerhaher and Huber have been collaborating as a duo for over 30 years, achieving significant recognition and awards for their song interpretation. They perform regularly at major international venues, including New York, Amsterdam, Cologne, Luxembourg, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, Milan, and often at London’s Wigmore Hall. Their concert appearances extend to festivals in Munich, Aix, Heidelberg, Salzburg, Granada, Berlin, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Rheingau, and Schleswig-Holstein.
His work with esteemed conductors like Daniel Harding, Simon Rattle, and Herbert Blomstedt has taken him to renowned concert halls worldwide. He frequently collaborates with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and especially the Berlin Philharmonic, where he was the first singer to hold the title of Artist in Residence, as well as with the symphony orchestras of Swedish and Bavarian Radio.
Notable projects from the past season included performances with Kirill Petrenko and Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Wolfram. He also made his role debut as Golaud in a new production of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at the Munich Opera Festival, significantly expanding his operatic repertoire.
This season’s song recitals focus on Robert Schumann. Following their comprehensive recording of Schumann’s works released by Sony Classical, Gerhaher and Huber will present various programs, including a duo performance with Julia Kleiter, across cities like Dublin, Cambridge, Dallas, Montreal, and Princeton, as well as an Asian tour in March 2025. The Wigmore Hall, Schubertiade Hohenems, Munich Opera Festival, and Salzburg Festival are partnering on this Schumann project. Together with Tabea Zimmermann, they will perform chamber music concerts in Turin, Siena, Luxembourg, and Munich, featuring works by Rihm, Schumann, and Brahms.
In concert performances, Gerhaher will appear in Stockholm as Tristan/Kurwenal with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and at the Tokyo Spring Festival as Amfortas in Parsifal. He will also perform with the Bamberg Symphony, in Carnegie Hall with Raphael Pichon, and with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome under Daniel Harding, among others.
On the opera stage, Gerhaher is a highly sought-after performer, recognized with awards such as the Laurence Olivier Award and the Faust Theatre Prize. His roles include Posa in Verdi’s Don Carlo, Amfortas in Wagner’s Parsifal, Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and title roles in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, and Henze’s Der Prinz von Homburg. A highlight of his career was his portrayal of Wozzeck in a celebrated production at Zurich Opera in 2015. He continues to perform the key role of Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser at major opera houses in Berlin, Vienna, London, and Munich, as well as at the Salzburg Easter Festival.
As an exclusive partner, Gerhaher releases his recordings with Sony Music. Together with Huber, he has recorded cycles of Schubert, Schumann, and Mahler. In Fall 2021, they released a comprehensive box set of all of Schumann’s songs, a collaboration with Bavarian Radio and the Heidelberg Spring Festival. Early 2022 saw the release of recordings of Schoeck’s Elegie, Holliger’s Lunea, and Rihm’s Stabat Mater. In 2023, they released Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with tenor Piotr Beczała.
Christian Gerhaher and his wife live in Munich with their three children.
