Julian Prégardien

On the international concert scene, Julian Prégardien is one of the most sought-after performers of the Evangelist parts in the Passions of J. S. Bach. He has recently sung the St Matthew Passion in Montreal with conductor Kent Nagano, as well as on tour with the Akademie für Alte Musik under the baton of René Jacobs. He likewise sang in the annual performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at Hamburg State Opera, conducted by Alessandro de Marchi. In early 2018 he will tour in Bach’s St John Passion with Raphaël Pichon and the Ensemble Pygmalion. Further vocal solo performances with orchestra in his 2017/2018 concert agenda include Haydn’s Seasons conducted by Kent Nagano in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, an appearance with the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie on the opening evening of the RheinVokal Festival, and a vocal recital with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris at the Paris Philharmonie. A special Monteverdi collaboration with his father Christoph Prégardien and the renowned early music ensemble Anima Eterna will lead him to perform in Versailles, Dijon, Bruges and Antwerp. Julian has been closely associated with the Würzburg Mozart Festival since 2016, and in 2017 he will appear in the new crossover format “Lounge Amadé”. He will return to the Würzburg Mozart Festival in June 2018 to perform a Lied matinee with fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout.

Prégardien’s CD “Schubertiade” on the Myrios Classics label won the 2017 International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in the Vocal Recital category. He was one of the soloists selected to participate in a major project spanning several evenings of recitals with different pianists: the complete performance of the Lieder of Franz Schubert at the Schubertiade in Hohenems/Schwarzenberg (Austria) and at Wigmore Hall in London.

In January 2017, Prégardien’s Japanese début with Schubert’s Winterreise at the Kioi Hall in Tokyo and at the Izumi Hall in Osaka with Masato Suzuki at the fortepiano was hailed by audiences and critics alike. In the upcoming season, Prégardien will perform Lied recitals at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Hugo Wolf Academy in Stuttgart, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Stadtcasino in Basel, the Meisterzyklus series in Bern, at Wigmore Hall in London and at the Bach Festival in Montreal. He will performWinterreise in Würzburg and Aschaffenburg with Gerhard Oppitz at the piano in October 2017. In May 2018 he has been invited to participate in a Schubert project at the new Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin, offering a Lied recital with pianist Martin Helmchen. Furthermore, Christoph and Julian Prégardien – father and son – give recitals on a regular basis with pianist Michael Gees: most recently, at the Philharmonie in Cologne in May 2017.

Recent recordings featuring Julian Prégardien include: Bach’s St Matthew Passion (likewise available on DVD) and the St John Passion with Concerto Köln and the Bavarian Radio Choir; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Hamburg Staatsoper Orchestra and Ballet (on DVD), Rameau’s opera Zaïs with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, Mozart’s opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail with René Jacobs and the Akademie für Alte Musik, and three CDs in the Lied genre: “An die Geliebte”, “Schubertiade”, and “Father and Son”.

At the same time, Julian Prégardien has launched the media platform P.RHÉI, an editorial project that throws new light on the performance history and practice of the Schubert Lied cycles Winterreise and Die Schöne Müllerin.

Born in Frankfurt in 1984, Julian Prégardien was trained in the boys’ choir of Limburg Cathedral, and went on to study voice at Freiburg Musikhochschule. Since 2013, he has been teaching the oratorio class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. In parallel, he offers masterclasses at the Royal Music Academy in Copenhagen, at McGill University in Montreal, and at the Salzburg Mozarteum Summer Academy held at Innsbruck Festival. Julian Prégardien is a member of the Schumann Network and is also a patron of Canto elementar, a programme that actively supports children’s singing activities in Kindergärten.

“Julian Prégardien, the evening’s true revelation, incarnates a Tamino close to the ideal. The son of a renowned tenor, Prégardien brings his extensive experience in oratorio and lied to the role, for an admirable result in terms of delicacy, phrasing and quasi-whispered emotional declamation, while never lacking magnificent energy and clear projection in the role’s pivotal moments. Thus, in the two solo arias, Prégardien’s interpretation already bears the mark of the great tenors – particularly the first one, full of exquisite tenderness that gradually turns into irrepressible passion. But the “Speaker Scene” in front of the Temple is where Prégardien’s Tamino reveals himself in all his splendor, heroic and self-confident; we are therefore already looking forward to what will surely be a magnificent performance in his upcoming incarnation of Oberon in Munich. This is an artist whose path we should watch closely, since he promises to enjoy a brilliant career.”