Wolfgang Holzmair

Holzmair spent about six years with opera companies in Bern (Bern Theatre) and Gelsenkirchen (Musiktheater im Revier) before successes in Udo Zimmermann's The White Rose and Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande brought him to general attention.{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/wolfgang-holzmair-q30165|title=Wolfgang Holzmair - Biography, Albums, Streaming Links - AllMusic|website=AllMusic |accessdate=19 March 2017}} His repertoire includes rarely performed works such as Henze's Boulevard Solitude, Nigel Osborne’s The Electrification of the Soviet Union,David M. Cummings in International Who's Who in Music and Musicians Directory [https://books.google.com/books?id=BeTBnjmnypEC&dq=Henze+Boulevard+solitude+holzmair&pg=PA293] Hindemith's Neues vom Tage{{cite web|url=http://www.kultiversum.de/Oper-Opernwelt/Panorama-Scheiden-tut-gar-nicht-weh.html|title=Ancona, Hindemith: Neues vom Tage|accessdate=19 March 2017}} and Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias.{{cite web |url=http://www.saito-kinen.com/e/about_skf/history.shtml/ |title=SAITO KINEN FESTIVAL MATSUMOTO : About SAITO KINEN FESTIVAL MATSUMOTO |accessdate=2011-02-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411003233/http://www.saito-kinen.com/e/about_skf/history.shtml |archive-date=2011-04-11 }}

More standard works{{cite web|url=http://www.owenwhitemanagement.com/baritones%20and%20basses/Wolfgang-Holzmair/|title=Wolfgang Holzmair|date=26 August 2014|accessdate=19 March 2017}} include Richard Strauss's Capriccio (the Count), Ariadne auf Naxos (Harlequin and the Music Master), Der Rosenkavalier (Faninal); Mozart's The Magic Flute (Papageno and the Speaker) and Così fan tutte (Guglielmo and Don Alfonso); Wagner's Tannhäuser (Wolfram), and Meistersinger (Beckmesser). In the 2009/2010 season he sang Demetrius in the Canadian Opera Company's production of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream,[http://www.operanews.com/operanews/templates/content.aspx?id=3041 Opera News review of A Midsummer Night's Dream] the Father in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel on a tour in Japan, and the Sorceress in a concert performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas{{cite web|url=http://derstandard.at/1262209301967/Musikverein-Wien-Amors-messerscharfe-Pfeile|title=Amors messerscharfe Pfeile|first=STANDARD Verlagsgesellschaft|last=m.b.H.|accessdate=19 March 2017}} in Vienna

Holzmair's high, rather light timbre is particularly suitable for song[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music--the-anatomy-of-melancholy-nick-kimberley-reviews-the-baritone-wolfgang-holzmairs-recital-at-the-wigmore-hall-1454023.html Nick Kimberley The Anatomy of Melancholy 1993]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} and in 1989 a highly successful debut at the Wigmore Hall launched his international recital career.[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/arts-show-people-sing-a-song-of-silence-71-wolfgang-holzmair-1453349.html Michael White Sing a Song of Silence 1993] His clear and expressive language embedded in a pure legato line,{{cite web|url=http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/April%201993/21/816879/LETTER+FROM+AMERICA#header-logo|title=Barrymore Laurence Scherer Letter from America 1993|accessdate=19 March 2017}} and his dramatic commitment, have been especially commended. The English music critic Alan Blyth{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/aug/16/guardianobituaries.media|title=Alan Blyth|first=Philip|last=Reed|date=15 August 2007|accessdate=19 March 2017|newspaper=The Guardian}} was immediately struck by the baritone’s first recording of Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin{{cite web|url=http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/March%201989/103/822950/SCHUBERT.+Die+schOne+Miillerin%2C+D795.+Wolfgang++Holzmair+%28bar%29+Jiirg+Demus+%28pf%29.+PreiserHar+monia+Mundi+0+0+93337+%2868+minutes%3A+ADD%29.|title=Review of Die Schone Mullerin|accessdate=19 March 2017}} and remained a firm advocate;{{cite web|url=http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/January%201993/58/826150/|title=Review of Schubert's Mayrhofer lieder|accessdate=19 March 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/February%202006/81/746378/|title=Review of Schubert's Goethe lieder|accessdate=19 March 2017}} more recently Richard Fairman referred to an exceptional ability to communicate the rhythms and meanings of poetry.{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/28609e5c-0932-11e0-ada6-00144feabdc0|title=Wolfgang Holzmair, Wigmore Hall|accessdate=19 March 2017}}

He has worked with many pianists of note, a long-standing collaboration with Imogen Cooper being widely admired for its exceptionally close rapport;Colin Clarke on the Holzmair/Cooper partnership in Wolf, in Musicweb International 2011 [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Jan11/Wolf_WHLIVE0029.htm][http://members.ozemail.com.au/~ozartsreview/CDs/schubert.html Review of re-issue of Holzmair/Cooper Schubert song cycles, 2005] other partners include Andreas HaefligerRob Pennock on Holzmair/Haefliger's Winterreise, in Classical Source 2009 [http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=7743] and Philippe Cassard[http://www.philippecassard.com/" Philippe Cassard Web site] as well as dedicated accompanists Gerard Wyss, Russell Ryan and Roger Vignoles. He also maintains a strong presence in the world of chamber music, where the Trio Wanderer,{{cite web|url=http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/December%202008/113/999493/Schottisebe+o1+,5+Beethoven+Haydn++PIeyeI|title=Performance with Trio Wanderer 2009|accessdate=19 March 2017}} the Nash Ensemble and the Rachmaninov Trio[http://gazprom.com/social/sport-culture/cultural-charitable/concert-11-10/ New initiative between Russian and Western musicians] are among his collaborators.

Holzmair regularly appears in major centres in Europe and North America, and also travels to outlying venues where communities have fewer opportunities to hear live recitals.{{cite web|url=http://www.wiltshiremusic.org.uk/whatson/wolfgang-holzmair-and-russell-ryan|title=Wolfgang Holzmair and Russell Ryan|first=Wiltshire Music|last=Centre|accessdate=19 March 2017}} Recent European Music Festivals include Risør, Kuhmo, Lockenhaus, Kyburgiade, the Oxford Lieder Festival and styriarte, and he has also participated in La Folle Journée's program for bringing classical music to new audiences. In 2010 Holzmair and the Departure Centre for Creative Design in Vienna collaborated in a bid to attract new listeners to lieder, by presenting concerts in which the baritone and 6 compatriots performed Wolf against visual backdrops. The experiment was deemed a success, and was repeated for Mahler’s lieder, with a slightly different cast of singers, in 2011.[http://www.departure.at/de/netzwerkaktivitaeten/lied_lab_2011brgustav_mahler_festival Mahler lieder with visuals] The Wolf series is now available on 5 DVDs, which show the visuals but not the singers.{{cite web|url=http://www.hoanzl.at/lieder-collector-s-edition.html|title=Lieder: Collector's Edition (DVD) WOLF, HUGO|accessdate=19 March 2017}}

Holzmair's wide-ranging repertoire includes melodies as well as lieder and extends from the 18th to the 21st century. He has long been committed to bringing to attention the "Entartete" composers who suffered under the Nazi regime and has recorded lieder by Hanns Eisler, Franz Mittler,{{cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/aug04/Mittler_Lieder.htm|title=MITTLER Lieder PREISER PR90567 [AO]: Classical CD Reviews- August 2004 MusicWeb(UK)|first=Music on the|last=Web(UK)|accessdate=19 March 2017}} Erich Zeisl,{{cite web|url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=22849&name_role1=2&bcorder=2&label_id=1118|title=Wolfgang Holzmair|accessdate=19 March 2017}} Ernst Krenek,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/04/arts/music-review-from-high-in-the-austrian-alps-a-bracing-whiff-of-forgotten-glories.html|title=MUSIC REVIEW; From High in the Austrian Alps, A Bracing Whiff of Forgotten Glories|first=Anthony|last=Tommasini|newspaper=The New York Times|date=4 November 2000|accessdate=19 March 2017}} Franz Schreker{{cite web|url=http://www.cvneweng.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=139|title=Music Worcester Presents the Israel Ballet in Don Quixote|first=Classical Voice of New|last=England|accessdate=19 March 2017}} and composers from Theresienstadt;{{cite web|url=http://www.operanews.com/operanews/templates/content.aspx?id=15323&terms=holzmair%20theresienstadt|title=Wolfgang Holzmair and Russell Ryan: Spiritual Resistance: Music From Theresiendstadt > Opera News > The Met Opera Guild|accessdate=19 March 2017}} in 2010 he joined the Nash Ensemble in a week-end show-casing music by the Theresienstadt composers, at the Wigmore Hall.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jun/22/theresienstadt-terezin-review|title=Theresienstadt weekend|first=Tim|last=Ashley|date=22 June 2010|accessdate=19 March 2017|newspaper=The Guardian}}{{cite web|url=http://www.mundoclasico.com/ed3/documentos/doc-ver.aspx?id=9d927b97-caad-450e-b62f-e14aa5908092|title=Week-end to Terezin I. Music from a lost generation|accessdate=19 March 2017}}

He has performed orchestrated lieder with many leading orchestras, as in the 2010 Styriarte Festival;{{cite web|url=http://www.klassik-heute.com/kh/1aktuell/20100707_12017.shtml|title=CDs, Tipps, News, Termine bei Klassik Heute – Fehlermeldung|first=Klassik|last=Heute|accessdate=19 March 2017}} other recent orchestral appearances have been in Britten's War Requiem, Brahms' Deutsches Requiem, Darius Milhaud's Les Choephores[http://www.resmusica.com/article_8024_musique_symphonique_orchestre_national_de_lille_paris_entre_derision_et_violence.html Review of Les Choephores] and Schumann's{{cite web|url=http://www.information.dk/223036|title=Brav kamp for at formidle 'Fausts' spraglede helhed|first=Camilla Marie|last=Dahlgreen|date=29 January 2010|accessdate=19 March 2017}} Scenes from Faust.

Premieres since 2000 include Kurt Schwertsik's Die Welt eine Laute and Fioretti per San Francesco,{{cite web|url=http://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Kurt-Schwertsik-Die-Welt-eine-Laute/15156|title=Kurt Schwertsik - Die Welt eine Laute|accessdate=19 March 2017}} a chamber version of Hans Werner Henze's Five Neapolitan Songs{{cite web|url=http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_features.php?id=80|title=Henze: voice for today @www.classicalsource.com|accessdate=19 March 2017}} with the Nash Ensemble (as part of a 75th birthday tribute to the composer), Dmitry Smirnov's Eternal RefugeOnline from [http://www.sibelius.com Sibelius music] with the Altenburg Trio Wien (recorded by Austrian Radio), Daniel Schnyder's one-act opera Mozart and Casanova{{cite web|url=http://www.danielschnyder.com/biography.php|title=Biography. — Daniel Schnyder. composer. saxophonist.|accessdate=19 March 2017}} (at the Menuhin Festival, Gstaad), Helmut Schmidinger's solo cantata Mozart Briefe[http://www.doblinger-musikverlag.at/dyn/werke/SCHMIDINGER_Schatten_und_Licht.pdf Schmidinger's Mozart Briefe] (with the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz, as part of Mozart's 250th), and David Matthews' arrangements of Brahms' lieder{{cite web|url=http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=3113|title=Nash Ensemble @www.classicalsource.com|accessdate=19 March 2017}} and of part of Franz Schubert's Schwanengesang{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/wolfgang-holzmairnash-ensemble-wigmore-hall-london-762189.html|title=Wolfgang Holzmair/Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall, London|date=4 December 2007|accessdate=19 March 2017}} (commissioned by the Nash Ensemble); recent additions are Schmidinger's Wo der Bartl den Most holt[http://www.musiksommerbadschallerbach.at/cms/index.php/programm-2008/programm20082/details/40-qmost-beautifulq-ua-v-helmut-schmidinger-wolfgang-holzmair-bariton Schmidinger's Wo Bartl den Most holt] and the Austrian premiere of Lori Laitman's Seed of Dreams.{{cite web|url=http://newswire.scena.org/2009/02/baritone-holzmair-performs-laitmans.html|title=LSM Newswire: Baritone HOLZMAIR performs Laitman's The Seed of Dream in Native Austria|accessdate=19 March 2017}} His Erich Zeisl disc marking the composer's 100th anniversary included unpublished songs, and he contributed to a recording of new settings of Eduard Mörike's poetry{{cite web|url=http://www.bayermusicgroup.de/index.php?page=artikel¤tLimit=&perPage=&listorder=5&search_cmd=quick&return_cmd=search&search=holzmair++&artnr=br1400067&lang=|title=Bayer Music Group :: Klassik Labels :: Online-Shop|accessdate=19 March 2017}} commissioned by the Hugo Wolf Institute of Stuttgart, to celebrate the poet's 200th birthday. Holzmair has commissioned David Leisner to compose a new piece for baritone and string quartet[http://www.davidleisner.com/biography.html David Leisner biography] and the resulting work, A Timeless Procession, will be premiered in a future season.

Since 1998 Holzmair has taught at the Salzburg Mozarteum and given master classes in Europe and North America; 2011 finds him participating in the annual Schubert Institute Master Course in Baden bei Wien{{cite web|url=http://www.schubert-institut.at/roster_teachers.htm|title=FRANZ-SCHUBERT-INSTITUT - Roster of Teachers|accessdate=19 March 2017}} for the 7th time. In 2008 the Royal College of Music made him a Fellow in recognition of services to the college and to music, and in 2009 he was a juror for the Wigmore Hall Song competition.{{cite web |url=http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/songcompetition/2009/jury |title=Song Competition > 2009 Competition > The Jury |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090913010835/http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/songcompetition/2009/jury |archive-date=13 September 2009 |website=Wigmore Hall}} He is an advisor to the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and contributed to the foundation's first CD.

• Schubert Die schöne Müllerin with Jörg Demus, 1983 Preiser
• Ein deutsches Requiem with Herbert Blomstedt, 1996 Decca Grammy Award
• Brahms Die Schone Magelone with Gerard Wyss and Will Quadfleg, 1986 Tudor
• Braunfels Die Vögel with Lothar Zagrosek, 1992 Decca
• Schubert lieder to texts by Mayrhofer with Gerard Wyss, 1993 Tudor
• Schumann Heine Lieder with Imogen Cooper, 1996 Philips
• Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart Lieder with Imogen Cooper, 2000 Philips
• Krenek and Schubert Lieder with Russell Ryan, 2003 Orf
• Beethoven, Pleyel, Haydn, Songs from the British Isles with the Trio Wanderer, 2008 Cypres
• Wolf Songs with Imogen Cooper, 2009 Wigmore Live
• Songs from Theresienstadt with Russell Ryan, 2009 Bridge
• Ravel Melodies and Trio with Ensemble Musique Oblique, 2009 Alphee

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• [http://www.wolfgangholzmair.com Homepage]

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Category:1952 births

Category:Living people

Category:Grammy Award winners

Category:Academics of the Royal College of Music

Category:Austrian operatic baritones

Category:21st-century Austrian male opera singers

Category:20th-century Austrian male opera singers

Category:People from Vöcklabruck