Maximilian Schmitt

Maximilian Schmitt discovered his love for music in his early years in the choir of the Regensburger Domspatzen. He began his vocal studies in 1999 with Prof. Anke Eggers at Berlin University of Arts.

In 2005 and 2006 he was a member of the “young ensemble” of the Bavarian State Opera Munich where he gained further experience in master classes of Ann Murray and Robert Dean Smith.

While still a member of the “young ensemble” he made his debut as Tamino in Zauberflöte at the Salzburg State Theatre. After some short appearances in smaller roles at the Bavarian State Opera, Maximilian Schmitt is a member of the Mannheim National Theatre ensemble since the season of 2008/2009 and can be seen there in roles such as David/Meistersinger and the lyric Mozart roles Tamino, Don Ottavio, Belmonte or Ferrando. Lately he made a very successful debut as Lenski/Eugen Onegin in Mannheim as well as in July as Tamino in the last new production of the past season. In summer 2012 he will conclude his time in Mannheim with the title role in Mozart´s La Clemenza di Tito. Besides Mannheim he took part in two performances in concert version of Don Giovanni with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Robin Ticciati and Maximilian Schmitt as Don Ottavio – and – again in concert version – with the WDR Symphonic Orchestra in Monteverdi´s Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria in the role of Telemacho. Robin Ticciati invited him again for 2012 to sing Ferrando in Così fan tutte. At the end of 2012 he will make his debut at the Amsterdam Opera in the role of Tamino in the new production of Simon McBurney conducted by Marc Albrecht.

Besides his passion for opera he is highly engaged in his activity as a concert singer. His wide variety of repertoire ranges from Monteverdi, Mozart to Mendelssohn. Schmitt received invitations from conductors such as Andrew Manze, Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Leopold Hager, Ulf Schirmer, Philippe Herreweghe, Marcus Creed, Trevor Pinnock, René Jacobs, Helmuth Rilling. Some of the orchestras which invited him are the Academy for Ancient Music Berlin, Concerto Köln, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and MDR Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

At the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra he took the part of the narrator in Schumann´s Paradies und die Peri, also in Mannheim in a scenic Version (“There is Maximilian Schmitt, who gave the juveniles […and the narrator] his delightfully lucent and unstrained blazing tenor” (Mannheimer Morgen). In summer 2011 he sang at the Edinburgh Festival under Roger Norrington Besides of his opera activities Maximilian Schmitt is a guest in Paris several times, again with the Orchestre de Paris under Jesus Lopez-Coboos, with the Ensemble orchestral de Paris under Reinhard Goebel as well as with the Ensemble Accentus under Laurence Equilbey, on tour with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester (Bach: Weihnachtsoratorium) and with the Collegium vocale Gent and Kurt Weill’s Berliner Requiem under Philippe Herreweghe. Dvorak’s Stabat mater is on the agenda with the WDR Symphonic Orchestra and also with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra.

Recitals, which he gives together with Gerold Huber, become more and more important on Maximilian Schmitt’s agenda. With soprano Christina Landshamer he arranged a duo recital for the Wiener Konzerthaus which reflected the German art song in the setting of the “Spot on Germany” Festival.

Solistic recitals with Schubert´s Schöne Müllerin bring him to his hometown Regensburg, to Munich and to Lieder series at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, with Schumann to the Heidelberg Spring Festival and to Ingolstadt and in 2013 with Brahms, Schubert and Hindemith to the Cologne Philharmonic.

In early 2011 the duo released its debut CD with Schumann songs „Träumend wandle ich bei Tag“ published by Oehms classics.

Further releases: Haydn´s Creation together with the Freiburg Baroque-Orchestra conducted by René Jacobs at Harmonia mundi France and also Bach´s Matthew Passion conducted by Riccardo Chailly at Decca with Maximilian Schmitt as aria tenor. He also received various awards for his CD Trauermusik of the Bach sons at Harmonia Mundi. His latest CD and DVD are Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunk under Peter Dijkstra.

Photo © Christian Kargl