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The German tenor, Maximilian [or Maximillian] Schmitt, discovered his love for music early on as a choirboy with the Regensburger Domspatzen. Starting in 1999, he studied voice performance with Professor nke Eggers at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2005 and 2006, he was member of the Young Ensemble at the Bayerische Staatsoper München and gained experience in master-classes with Ann Murray and Robert Dean Smith.
While still a member of the Young Ensemble, Maximilian Schmitt was able to make his debut at the Salzburg Landestheater as Tamino in the Zauberflöte. In the meantime, in Munich he performed roles such as Lord Cecil in Roberto Devereux or Albazar in Il turco in Italia in a staging by Christoph Loy at the Festival 2007. From the season 2008-2009, he will have a full-time engagement for two years at the Staatstheater Mannheim, to sing such parts as David in Meistersinger and lyrical Mozart parts such as Tamino, Don Ottavio or Ferrando.
In addition to his passion for opera, Maximilian Schmitt is increasingly active as a concert singer. He has worked with Andrew Manze, Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Leopold Hager, Ulf Schirmer, Marcus Creed, Trevor Pinnock and with such orchestras as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concerto Köln, Kammerorchester Basel, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen and Mitteldeutschen Rundfunks, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.
During the season 2006/2007, he worked together with Helmuth Rilling for the first time, debuted at the Bayerische Rundfunk, went on a European tour with the RIAS-Kammerchor with J.S. Bach’s Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 and appeared with the Münchner Rundfunkorcherster in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor by Otto Nicolai as well as with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra in Schumann’s Paradies und die Peri, in the part of the narrator. Recent highlights include concerts with J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor (BWV 232) with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Trevor Pinnock, Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen under Peter Dijkstra (Evangelist) as well with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding (Arias) and the title part of a concert performance of Weber’s Oberon with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker.
Alongside his permanent engagement in Mannheim he will still has time for concerts: He will perform Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Georg Christoph Biller, moreover, in 2009, he will go on tour with Helmuth Rilling and the Bachakademie and - again with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, this time under the direction of their chief conductor Riccardo Chailly - sing the arias in Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) in concerts and a recording (Decca).
Together with his experienced lied accompanist Gerold Huber, he has started to explore the lied repertoire. Following a Munich recital, the Bayerische Rundfunk invited him for a first lied production of Schumann’s Dichterliebe. |
