Julian Prégardien

In opera, concert and Lied repertoire, Julian Prégardien enjoys widespread success in equal measure on an international scale.
He has gained particular acclaim in the tenor part of the Evangelist in the passions and oratorios of J. S. Bach. Prégardien recently sang the Evangelist in the Christmas Oratorio under the baton of Peter Schreier in the Munich Philharmonie, as well as the Evangelist in the St Matthew Passion at the Lincoln Center in New York conducted by Philippe Herreweghe, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Bach Society and at the Munich Herkulessaal with Peter Dijkstra and the Bavarian Radio Choir in a CD/DVD production that has been broadcast several times by different German television stations. Prégardien also recently sang in a television production of the St John Passion in Riga (Latvia) with Concerto Copenhagen conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen. He had previously recorded the St John Passion in 2010 on the French ZIG ZAG label in a production that received excellent international reviews. In early 2015 he will once more record the Evangelist in the St John Passion for Bavarian Radio. 
During the 2014/15 season, Prégardien will also perform Bach cantatas on tour with René Jacobs, and in Barcelona and Paris he will sing the Christmas Oratorio conducted by Christophe Rousset. Under the baton of Andrea Marcon he will likewise perform the Mass in B Minor with Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as a series of Bach cantatas with Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; he will also go on tour singing the St Matthew Passion with Le Concert Lorrain conducted by Christoph Prégardien. 
Further collaborations in the 2014/15 season include Bach cantatas with the Stuttgart International Bach Academy under Hans-Christoph Rademann, Mozart’s Requiem with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Bavarian Radio Chorus under Peter Dijkstra, and Haydn’s Creation with Christoph Poppen conducting the Cologne Chamber Orchestra.

On the opera stage, Prégardien has recently sung the part of Jaquino in Fidelio with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi. He also covered the role of Eurimedes in Telemann’s Orpheus at Frankfurt Opera, where he was previously an ensemble member and covered the roles of Tamino in The Magic Flute, Jason in Charpentier’s Medée and The Novice in Billy Budd. At Aix-en-Provence Festival he sang the roles of Nencio in Haydn’s L’infedeltà delusa and Belfiore in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. In June of 2015 he will make a guest appearance as Renaud in Lully’s Armide at the Opéra National de Lorraine (Nancy), with Christophe Rousset conducting and David Hermann as stage director. In the 2013/14 season he sang Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under René Jacobs (at Bremen Musikfest, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and La Monnaie in Brussels), as well as the title role in Rameau’s Zaïs with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques (Amsterdam, Versailles, Theater an der Wien). Both productions were recorded for CD release.

Julian Prégardien can be heard on the Virgin Classics release of Ezio (Gluck) under Alan Curtis, a production that received an ECHO Classical Award in 2012. He was also among the singers on the roster of Cecilia Bartoli’s second CD release devoted to the works of Agostino Steffani, entitled Stabat Mater (Decca Classics). 
With the title An die Geliebte, Julien Prégardien’s first solo recording was released in early 2014 on the Myrios Classics label, featuring Lied repertoire accompanied by Christoph Schnackertz at the piano – a release that reaped high praise from the critics. In late 2014, Challenge Records International will publish a joint vocal collaboration between father and son, featuring Christoph and Julien Prégardien singing Lied repertoire accompanied by pianist Michael Gees.

Julien Prégardien has given Lieder recitals at Davos Festival, at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, at Stuttgart Musikfest, at the Rheingau Music Festival, at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, at the Styriarte Festival in Graz, at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Cologne Philharmonie, Stadtcasino Basel, Innsbruck Festival and the Edinburgh and Schwetzingen festivals. In 2013 he performed for the first time at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, where he is re-invited to perform in 2015. The 2014/15 season will also see a series of joint Lieder recitals with his father scheduled at the Haydn Festival in Brühl, at Stuttgart Musikfest, at Wigmore Hall and at Salzburg Whitsun Festival.

The singer also enjoys presenting distinctive chamber music programmes. At Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Schumann’s birth in 2010, he premièred his own arrangement of Schumann’s Liederkreis cycle for string quartet and improvised piano intermezzos with Michael Gees and the Gémaux Quartet. In 2014, in collaboration with the Ricercar Consort, he devised a “Schubertiad” featuring Lied arrangements, instrumental works and texts by Schubert and his contemporaries, arranged for flute, guitar and barytone viol. That project will be released by Myrios Classics as Prégardien’s second solo CD in 2015. 

Born in Frankfurt, Julien Prégardien was trained in the Limburg Cathedral Choir and went on to study voice at Freiburg Musikhochschule. Since the summer semester of 2013 he has been teaching the oratorio class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.