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Philipp Mathmann

Biography

"Mathmann is the man for the extreme heights this evening with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Especially in the soprano regions, where the air becomes thin, his head voice blossoms once more and acquires a radiance about which one can only marvel..." - Badische Zeitung, Georg Rudiger - January 2022

"...the "Beauty" (La Bellezza) finds an adequate interpreter in Philipp Mathmann due to his voice full of variations. Acting-wise, the numerous faces of Beauty - from the girl and the dissolute old woman to the young and later demented monk - are brilliantly interpreted (by Philipp Mathmann)." - OPERNWELT, Alexej Parin - July 2018

"As Lepido, Philipp Mathmann puts his bell-bright countertenor to virtuosic use." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ); Werner M. Grimmel - July 2018

"Abel, the younger brother, is sung by soprano Philipp Mathmann with irritatingly beautiful, bell-clean naivety."-Richard Lorber, WDR3 Opernblog - January 2020

Philipp Mathmann's singular voice surprises with its self-evident high notes, its bright clarity, and fascinates with its intensity. The young German singer is now one of the most internationally sought-after countertenors of his generation.

Growing up in Lippstadt, he began his vocal training with Friederike Vomhof-Surrey and Heike Hallaschka. He worked for many years with Renate Faltin and Annette Goeres in Berlin, and has received important impulses from renowned interpreters such as Ingeborg Danz, Kai Wessel and Barbara Schlick, Antonio Lemmo, Nicholas Clapton and Dame Emma Kirkby.

Since his operatic debut in 2011 in the operatic pastiche La Mara at the Theater des Schlosses Sanssouci in Potsdam, Mathmann has been a regular guest at international music festivals, such as the Festival Winter in Schwetzingen, the Musikfest Bremen, the Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, the MAfestival in Bruges, the Styriarte in Graz, the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Italy, the Tage Alter Musik in Herne, the International Handel Festival in Göttingen, the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele and the Handel Festival in Halle.

Early music is one of Mathmann’s main loves. He has sung the leading roles of Anastasio in Giustino by G. F. Händel, Zelim in La verità in cimento by A. Vivaldi and Mirtillo in Il pastor fido by G. F. Handel, among others. In 2018, he made his Moscow debut as La Bellezza in a staged production of Handel's oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow. He was the first countertenor in the world to take on this highly demanding soprano role and was nominated for the Golden Mask Award as "Best Opera Performer" for his interpretation. In 2020, at the Essen Aalto Theater, he took on the role of Abel in the staged version of A. Scarlatti's oratorio Cain and Abel, directed by Dietrich W. Hilsdorf, which was nominated several times for the Faust Prize. Further opera engagements have taken Mathmann to the Semperoper Dresden, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, to Bayreuth and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, among others.

Philipp Mathmann can also be heard on the concert podium at prominent venues, such as the Kölner Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the Konzerthaus Wien, La Seine Musicale de Paris and the concert halls of Dortmund and Freiburg.

Regular collaborations connect him with the most renowned, historically-informed ensembles, such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, the Akademie für Alte Musik (Akamus) Berlin, the Ensemble Questa Musica in Moscow, the Orkiestra Historyczna ("OH!"), Armonia Atenea, I Barocchisti, Ensemble 1700 and Concerto Köln.

His first CD recording, "La deposizione dalla croce di Gesu Cristo" by F. X. Richter with the Czech Ensemble Baroque in 2017, was followed by numerous radio and television productions with ARTE, Hessischer Rundfunk, WDR, Dutch Classical Radio (NPO Radio 4), Moscow 24 and Deutschlandfunk among others. He collaborates regularly with eminent conductors, such as George Petrou, Christophe Rousset, Gianluca Capuano, Philipp Chizhevskiy, Martyna Pastuszka, Dorothee Oberlinger, Rubén Dubrovsky and Diego Fasolis.

His highly-acclaimed debut solo CD ("Tormenti d'Amore"), released in 2020, features four love cantatas by Baroque and Viennese Classical composers (J.A. Hasse, G. Porsile and J.G. Reutter), three of which are world premiere recordings.

Mathmann's repertoire is, however, not limited to early music. In the 2021/2022 season, for example, he took on the role of the Angel in the world premiere of Thorsten Rasch's Die andere Frau at the Semperoper Dresden, the role of the Scorpion Man in Jörg Widmann's Babylon at the International May Festival at the Staatstheater in Wiesbaden and the role of Dr. Dürer in the production Thomas of G. F. Haas at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Philipp Mathmann is a "Jugend Musiziert" national prize winner and was a multiple prize winner at the international Giulio Perotti Singing Competition. He received scholarships to the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, the Musikhochschule in Detmold and the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.

(2023_24. Please only use this biography.)

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Photos

Pressphoto 2023 A, Annemone Taake
Pressphoto 2023 B, Annemone Taake
Pressphoto 2023 C, Annemone Taake
Pressphoto 2023 D, Annemone Taake
Pressphoto 2023 E, Annemone Taake
Pressphoto 2023 F, Annemone Taake

Schedule

07 04 2024

THE MASTERS VOICE

Salle Garnier Monte Carlo (MC)
08 06 2024

THE MASTERS VOICE

Opera Royal Versailles (FR)
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Recordings

07 10 2020
Tormenti d'Amore
Tormenti d'Amore
Hasse, Porsile, Reutter
16 01 2017
La Deposizione
La Deposizione
Franz Xaver Richter