Christian Immler
With a voice of “warm, noble timbre and great flexibility” (Forum Opéra), German bass- baritone Christian Immler is a multifaceted artist whose career ranges widely across the worlds of lieder, oratorio and opera, “a technically, musically and stylistically consummate interpreter, with exemplary diction and emotional urgency coupled with a deep intellectual textual understanding” (Klassik Heute). He studied with Rudolf Piernay in London and won the International Nadia et Lili Boulanger Competition in Paris. His operatic experience ranges from Monteverdi’s Seneca, Jupiter and Borée in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux and Les Boréades, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Rocco in Beethoven’s Leonore, the Hermit in Weber’s Der Freischütz, Fasolt in Wagner’s Rheingold, the Musiklehrer in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos to Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland. In concert, he has performed Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with the Minnesota Orchestra, Kindertotenlieder with Hungarian National Philharmonic, Mendelssohn’s Elias with the OAE, Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony with Orchestre National de France, Detlev Glanert's Prager Symphonie with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus, Missa solemnis with the Montreal Symphony as well as the Requiems of Dvorak, Brahms, Mozart, Fauré and Verdi. Naturally, he loves coming back to key works by Bach and Handel. Christian has worked with such conductors as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert Blomstedt, René Jacobs, Semyon Bychkov, Marc Minkowski, Masaaki and Masato Suzuki, Raphaël Pichon, Ivor Bolton, Christophe Rousset, Daniel Harding, Kent Nagano, Leonardo Alarcón, Laurence Equilbey, Graziella Contratto, James Conlon, Philippe Herreweghe and William Christie. A keen recitalist, Christian has been invited by Wigmore Hall in London, the Frick Collection in New York, the Paris Philharmonie and the Salzburg Mozarteum with pianists including Helmut Deutsch, Kristian Bezuidenhout and Andreas Frese. His more than 60 recordings have been awarded prizes such as a 2016 Grammy Nomination, a Diamant d’Opéra, several Diapason d’Or, the Echo and Opus Klassik, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Gramophone Award. Christian holds a doctorate in musicology, loves teaching and is much in demand for worldwide masterclasses.

Helmut Deutsch
ranks among the finest, most successful and in-demand song recital accompanists of the world. He was born in Vienna, where he studied at the Conservatory, the Music Academy and the University. He was awarded the Composition Prize of Vienna in 1965 and appointed professor at the age of twenty-four. Although he has performed with leading instrumentalists as a chamber musician, he has concentrated primarily on accompanying in song recitals. At the beginning of his career he worked with the soprano Irmgard Seefried, but the most important singer of his early years was Hermann Prey, whom he accompanied as a permanent partner for twelve years. Subsequently he has worked with many of the most important recital singers and played in the world’s major music centres.

Deutsch has recorded more than a hundred CDs. In recent years the development of young talent has been especially close to his heart. After his professorship in Vienna he continued his teaching primarily in Munich at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, where he worked as a professor of song interpretation for 28 years. In addition he is a visiting professor at various other universities and is sought-after for an increasing number of masterclasses in Europe and the Far East. The young Swiss tenor Mauro Peter was one of his last students in Munich and has become one of his favourite recital partners.