The pianist Götz Payer has performed in concert with more than 80 singers, including Sarah Wegener, Mojca Erdmann, Sibylla Rubens, Esther Dierkes, Samantha Gaul, KS Helene Schneiderman, Angela Brower, Deniz Uzun, Thilo Dahlmann, Cornelius Hauptmann, Konrad Jarnot, Björn Bürger, Johannes Held, Julian Prégardien, Andreas Weller, and James Wagner. His chamber music partners have included, among others, the King’s Singers, Ensemble Cantissimo, and the Amaryllis Quartet.
His concerts have taken him to festivals and concert halls across Europe, Asia, and the United States, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the European Music Festival Stuttgart, the Bach Festival Leipzig, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Atlanta Opera, Tonhalle Zurich, Oji Hall Tokyo, Vladivostok Theater, Oxford International Song Festival, Hugo Wolf Academy Stuttgart, Shizuoka Hall, Schloss Leopoldskron Salzburg, Nymphenburg Palace, Opera Lille, Accademia Chigiana Siena, the Elbphilharmonie, Frankfurt Opera, and Cologne Philharmonie.
He has contributed to over 35 CD productions released by various labels. In 2013, a song composed by Götz Payer specifically for the 75th anniversary commemoration of Kristallnacht was premiered in a concert by the Atlanta Opera. He is also an active arranger, having arranged music such as the songs on Helene Schneiderman’s CD Makh tsu die Eygelech (Close your little eyes).
As the official accompanist for numerous masterclasses, he has collaborated with renowned artists such as Grace Bumbry, Ernst Haefliger, Kurt Moll, Matthias Goerne, Christoph Prégardien, Rudolf Piernay, Rudolf Jansen, Alberto Zedda, and Gerd Uecker.
Götz Payer taught song interpretation at the music universities in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main. In 2022, he was appointed Professor of Song at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. He has been invited to give masterclasses in France, Italy, Russia, and Germany, and is a co-founder of the Liedakademie Sindelfingen.
A major focus of Götz Payer’s work is his voluntary involvement in musical projects on themes such as Musik für Menschen mit Demenz (Music for People with Dementia), Singen mit und für Kinder (Singing with and for Children) and Gedenken der Opfer des Holocaust (Remembering the Victims of the Holocaust).
He is the host of the talk series Let’s Talk About Lied and founder of the project Eine Stimme geben (Giving a Voice).