Born 1956 in Limburg, Germany, Christoph Prégardien began his musical education as a choirboy. He then studied singing with Martin Gründler and Karlheinz Jarius in Frankfurt, Carla Castellani in Milan, Alois Treml in Stuttgart and attended Hartmut Höll’s lieder-class.
Widely regarded as among the foremost lyric tenors, Christoph Prégardien frequently collaborates with conductors such as Barenboim, Chailly, Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Luisi, Metzmacher, Nagano, Sawallisch and Thielemann. His repertory spans a wide range from the great Baroque, Classical and Romantic Oratorios to 20th century works by Britten, Killmayer, Rihm, Stravinsky.
Recognized as an eminent recitalist, Christoph Prégardien is regularly welcomed at the major recital venues of Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Zurich, Vienna, Barcelona and Geneva, as well as during his concert tours throughout Italy, Japan and North America.
A longstanding collaboration unites him with his favourite piano partners Michael Gees and Andreas Staier. Soloist of choice for renowned orchestras, he performed with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Gewand-hausorchester Leipzig, London Philharmonia, Staatskapelle Dresden, Philharmonie de Radio France, the Montreal, Boston, St. Louis and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras.
An important part of his repertory has been recorded by labels such as BMG, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Sony, Erato, Challenge Classics and Teldec. He is represented on more than a hundred and twenty titles, including nearly all of his active repertoire. His recordings of German Romantic Lied repertory have been highly acclaimed by the public and press and have received international awards including the prestigious Orphée d’Or of the Académie du Disque Lyrique-Prix Georg Solti, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Award, Cannes Classical Award and Diapason d’Or.
As an opera singer, Christoph Prégardien has made stage appearences in major European houses, performing leading roles as Tamino (Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Seviglia), Fenton (Falstaff) and Monteverdi’s Ulisse. In Spring 2005, Christoph Prégardien sang the leading part in Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” at the Paris National Opera conducted by Sylvain Cambreling.
An important aspect in the musical life of Christoph Prégardien is his intensive and varied educational work. From 2000 to 2005 Christoph Prégardien was in charge of a vocal class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich. Since the autumn of 2004, he is a professor at the Musikhochschule Köln. In a new combination of DVD and book, released in the serie “Schott Master Class”, he presents for the first time questions of singing technique and interpretation in word and picture. Film examples accompagny him during his lessons with masterclass students.
Christoph Prégardien now has a long-term cooperation with Challenge Classics. The first production on our label, released in February 2008, was Schubert’s “Die schöne Müllerin” with pianist Michael Gees. In the fall of 2008 “Schwanengesang” with pianist Andreas Staier followed and “Die schöne Müllerin” was awarded the Midem ‘Record of the Year’ 2009 at MIDEM, the world’s largest music industry trade fair. The duo Christoph Prégardien/Michael Gees also received the MIDEM ‘Vocal Recitals’ Award 2009. Throughout 2008 the recording received critical acclaim from many national and international magazines (Gramophone, Editor’s Choice & „Best of 2008“ among others).

Born in Limburg, Julia Kleiter studied with William Workmann in Hamburg and with Klesie Kelly-Moog in Cologne and debuted 2004 as Pamina at Opéra-Bastille in Paris under Jiri Kout. In the meantime she has sung this role in several productions in Madrid, Zürich, at the Edinburgh Festival, in New York, Munich and at Salzburg Festival with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Marc Minkowski, Claudio Abbado or Adam Fischer.
2005 she was heard as Giunia in Lucio Silla by Johann Christian Bach under Theodor Guschlbauer with Zurich Opera in Winterthur, in Zurich she performed 2006 Serpetta in under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, 2007 Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Zdenka in Arabella La Finta Giardiniera unter Franz Welser-Möst and 2010 Ilia under Harnoncourt.
Other highlights of her operatic career were Papagena under Claudio Abbado in Ferrara, Baden-Baden and Modena, Susanna in in Verona, Reggio Emilia, Dresden and Paris, Celia in Mozart’s in Lucio Silla Le Nozze di Figaro unter Tamas Netopil in Venise and at the Salzburg Festival, Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice under Ricardo Muti in Florence and Euridice under Thomas Hengelbrock in Paris, Marzelline in Fidelio in Ferrara, Baden-Baden and Madrid under Claudio Abbado and in Paris under Sylvain Cambreling, Händel’s Acis und Galathea in concert in Göttingen, Ilia under Harnoncourt in Graz, Ännchen in Der Freischütz (Hengelbrock/Wilson) in Baden-Baden and Dortmund, Zendka under Ulf Schirmer and Sophie under Donald Runnicles at Deutsche Oper Berlin. 2012 she debuted highly successfull as Almirena at Lyric Opera of Chicago in Händel’s Rinaldo and returned to Paris as Zdenka under Philippe Jordan.
As a concert singer and recitalist she is guesting in all major concert halls and is working with conductors such as Helmut Rilling, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Jeffrey Tate, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Marc Minkowski, Ivor Bolten, René Jacobs, Christoph Poppen, Daniel Harding or Marek Janowski.
Several dvd and cd recordings are proving her artistic variety.

Hilko Dumno studied Piano, Chamber music and Song Interpretation at the Hochschulen in Detmold and Frankfurt am Main. Among his teachers were Gregor Weichert, Rainer Hoffmann, Tabea Zimmermann and Charles Spencer. He was a scholarship holder from the Endowmentof the Arts, officially sponsored by the German government, the Villa Musica in Mainz and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.
He has regular collaboration with Christoph Prégardien, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Christine Schäfer, Hans-Jörg Mammel, Hedwig Fassbender, Julia Kleiter and Johannes Schendel whom he’s accompanied at various festivals among which are Schleswig-Holstein, Schwetzingen, Dresden, Luzerne, Geneva and the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg.
Further concert tours brought him to North America and Japan. For the North German radio, the Hessischer Rundfunk and the Radio de la Suisse Romande he’s taken part in various productions which testify to his artistic activities. He has also produced several CDs. Hilko Dumno teaches Song Interpretation at the Hochschule for Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt and At the Hochschule for Music and Dance in Cologne.