Hanno Müller-Brachmann

The bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann, who grew up in South Baden and was musically schooled at an early age in the Knabenkantorei Basel, studied with Ingeborg Most in Freiburg, with Rudolf Piernay in Mannheim and attended Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s Lied class in Berlin.

While still a student, Daniel Barenboim brought the 27-year-old three-time competition winner to the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, where he was a member of the ensemble for 13 years. Here Hanno Müller-Brachmann embodied the great Mozart roles in his field, in addition to which he could be heard as Kaspar (Der Freischütz), Amfortas (Parsifal), Escamillo (Carmen), Banquo (Macbeth), Goulaud (Pelléas et Mélisande) and the Count (Der ferne Klang) as well as in the world premieres of Elliott Carter’s “What next?” and Pascal Dusapin’s “Faustus, the last night”. In addition to Daniel Barenboim, important partners for him on the podium in Berlin have included Michael Gielen, René Jacobs, Sebastian Weigle, Gustavo Dudamel, Pierre Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle and Philippe Jordan. Guest appearances have taken Hanno Müller-Brachmann to the State Operas in Hamburg, Vienna and Munich, to the “Theater an der Wien” and to San Francisco. The recording of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte under Claudio Abbado with Müller-Brachmann in the role of Papageno was released by Deutsche Grammophon and received a Gramophone Award as opera recording of the year. Formative directors for him were Harry Kupfer, Ruth Berghaus, Peter Mussbach, Martin Kusej, Doris Dörrie, Keith Warner and Peter Sellars.

As a concert singer, the bass-baritone experienced unforgettable moments in performances with Kurt Masur, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Andris Nelsons, Vladimir Jurowski, Kirill Petrenko and Lorin Maazel. He has also worked with Bernhard Haitink for many years, for example with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan or the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, alongside which he opened the Salzburg Festival in 2014 with Haydn’s Creation, whose recording of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis won the Gramophone Award as the choral recording of the year in 2016 and with whom he premiered Wolfgang Rihm’s Requiem-Strophen under Mariss Jansons in 2017.

As a lied singer, Hanno Müller-Brachmann has made guest appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus and at festivals such as the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Edinburgh, Hitzacker, Lockenhaus, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. Most recently, the album “Auf jenen Höh’n” with Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Martin’s Jedermann-Monologen and Brahms’  Vier ernste Gesänge with pianist Hendrik Heilmann as well as a recording of Schubert’s Schwanengesang and early songs by Carl Maria von Weber with Jan Schultsz at the fortepiano were released on CD. His recording of songs by Rudi Stephan with Hinrich Alpers at the piano was awarded an Opus Classic.

Outstanding recent performances include Lieder by Hugo Wolf with the BR Symphony Orchestra under Iván Fischer in Munich, Anton Webern’s Cantata No. 2 with the Ensemble Intercontemporain under Matthias Pintscher or Dvořák‘s Stabat mater with the Orchestre National de France under Christoph Eschenbach in Paris. Highlights in 23/24 are Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at the Vienna Musikverein or Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Brussels Bozar, the MüPa in Budapest or the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Hanno Müller-Brachmann has been Professor of Singing at the Karlsruhe University of Music since 2011. He is a juror for international competitions and for the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and is passionately committed to the preservation and improvement of musical education, currently as chairman of the boys’ and girls’ choir Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe.