Benno Schachtner

Worldwide representation for Opera

Benno Schachtner succeeded in establishing himself as one of the leading German countertenors in the past seasons.

His most important engagements in recent seasons include Bach's Mass in B minor in the Hamburg State Ballet's production at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and at the Hamburg State Opera; the role of Refugee in Jonathan Dove's successful opera Flight at the Bonn Opera; Bach's St John Passion at the Salzburg Easter Festival and at the Opéra de Dijon. In 2024/25, he will also appear in this production at the Théatre de Champs-Elysées in Paris.

Further commitments in recent seasons include his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York with works by Johann Sebastian Bach, his debut at the Theater an der Wien in a new production of Handel's Teseo, and his debut at the Opéra de Paris in a new production of Scarlatti's Il primo omicidio directed by Romeo Castellucci, each under the direction of René Jacobs. With Il primo omicidio he also appeared in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in a new production at the Berlin State Opera. Concert performances of Telemann’s Orpheus brought him to Antwerpen, Amsterdam, Cologne and Brussels. The Leipzig Opera signed him for a staged version of the Johannes Passion, Nationaltheater Mannheim presented the artist in a new production of Händel’s Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno. He sang the title role in Echnathon and La Calisto at the Bonn Opera, Sosarme and Arminio at the Handel Festival in Halle, Saul at the Braunschweig State Theater, Written on Skin at the St. Gallen Theater and at the Ulm Theater. He gave concerts with the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Hamburger Ratsmusik, the Collegium 1704, the RIAS Chamber Choir, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Thomanerchor und Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and joined the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Bachwoche Ansbach and the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Festival. Benno Schachtner made his Canadian debut in Bach's Christmas Oratorio and his North American debut in Handel's Messiah in Seattle. CD recordings lead him to the Stuttgart Bach Academy. In 2017 his first solo album was released under the title Clear and Cloudy (works by Purcell, Hume, Dowland and others).

Benno Schachtner was born in 1984 in Illertissen (Bavaria). As a boy soprano and soloist with the “Ulmer Spatzen" he made several trips at home and abroad (including Luxembourg, Holland and Japan). He repeatedly was awarded at the competition „Jugend musiziert“ on state and federal levels (state champion in Baden-Wuerttemberg). 2004 to 2009 Benno Schachtner studied at the Detmold Academy of Music church music with Prof. Gerhard Weinberger and 2008-2010 in the singing class of Prof. Heiner Eckels. In September 2010 he joined the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in the singing class of Prof. Ulrich Messthaler. He is the first countertenor in the history of prestigious Bach International Competition Leipzig who received the title “Bachpreisträger” and, in addition to that, the Orchestra Prize. Already in 2010 he was awarded “Best Young Singer of Nordrhein-Westfalen”. Since 2020 Benno Schachtner is professor at Hochschule der Künste in Bremen.

2024/25

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