Swiss baritone Manuel Walser studied singing with Thomas Quasthoff at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where he graduated with honours. He was awarded 1st prize and the audience prize at the international "Das Lied" competition in Berlin in 2013.

Manuel Walser was a permanent ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera for five seasons until 2019. In January 2018, he made his debut at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden as Harlequin in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. In February 2021, he made his debut in Strauss' Salome at La Scala in Milan, after which he appeared as Donner in a new production of Wagner's Rheingold at the Erl Festival in summer 2021. At the same festival he also made his role debut as Gunther in Wagner's Götterdämmerung in August 2023 and will return once more for the entire Ring cycle in summer 2024. In December 2022, Manuel Walser appeared as the narrator in a new production of Mozart's Magic Flute at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg and made his debut as Papageno in a concert performance of the same opera under the direction of Martin Wåhlberg in autumn 2023.

The baritone has long been a regular guest on the concert stage, having worked with renowned orchestras such as the Concertgebouw Orkest, Wiener Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonkünstlerorchester Niederösterreich, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, J. S. Bach Foundation, Concentus Musicus Wien and the Ensemble Pygmalion under conductors such as Anja Bihlmaier, Alfred Eschwé, Stefan Gottfried, Manfred Honeck, Martin Haselböck, Ton Koopman, Jonathan Nott, Raphaël Pichon, Andreas Spering and Jordi Savall.

Manuel Walser is particularly dedicated to the lied genre. Recitals have taken him to Barcelona, Paris, London's Wigmore Hall and the Schubertíada Vilabertran in the Pierre Boulez Saal, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Musikverein, Munich, Zurich, the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid and the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg.

After being featured as a “Great Talent” at the Wiener Konzerthaus in the 2019-20 season, where he gave a series of dedicated concerts under the programme, Manuel Walser returns this season for Bach cantatas as well as the composer’s St Matthew Passion. Further highlights include Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, as well as Bach's St John Passion under Jordi Savall, Bach cantatas together with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Residentie Orchestra under the direction of Adrew Grams.

http://www.manuel-walser.com

2023 | 2024

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