“Goerne’s instrument, with its velvety crevices, catches darkness and light. (...) Few artists are so temperamentally suited to this repertoire - and fewer still possess such a plush, darkly inviting voice.”
German baritone Matthias Goerne, who has been hailed as “today’s leading interpreter of German art songs” (Chicago Tribune) and “one of the greatest singers performing today” (Boston Globe), is a frequent guest with leading orchestras and renowned festivals worldwide.
Among his musical partners are conductors Claudio Abbado, Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Manfred Honeck, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Kirill Petrenko, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Franz Welser-Möst. Goerne has appeared on the world’s principal opera stages, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro Real in Madrid, Paris National Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, and the Vienna State Opera. His roles range from Amfortas, Marke, Wolfram, Wotan, Orest, and Jochanaan to the title roles in Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck.
Goerne’s recordings have earned him five Grammy nominations, an ICMA award, a Gramophone Award, the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award 2017, Diapason d’or arte, and the ECHO Klassik 2017 “Singer of the Year”. Goerne was the 2017–18 Artist-in-Residence at Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, 2018–19 Artist-in-Residence with The New York Philharmonic, and 2024–25 Artist-in-Residence with the Shanghai Symphony.
Goerne is an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London and has also been an ambassador for the Weimar Art Festival since 2019. Born in Weimar, he studied with Hans-Joachim Beyer, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.