Maximilian Schmitt

Maximilian Schmitt, a tenor whose artistic reach encompasses opera, song, and orchestral repertoire stretching from Monteverdi to Britten, has distinguished himself in both conventional productions and those shaped by historically informed practices. Born in 1977 in West Germany, he launched his professional path as a chorister with the Regensburger Domspatzen, the country’s most celebrated boys’ choir. Voice studies with Anke Eggers at the Berlin University of the Arts were complemented by membership in the Bavarian State Opera’s Youth Ensemble during 2005 and 2006. His Austrian debut took place at the Salzburg Landestheater, where he sang Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte; subsequent engagements at the Bavarian State Opera’s Opera Studio led to a full ensemble contract at the National Theater in Mannheim, a post he held through 2012. There he performed David in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and numerous Mozart roles. Since then Schmitt has sung at leading houses across several countries, making his La Scala debut in 2016 as Pedrillo in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail under Zubin Mehta and later appearing at the Wiener Staatsoper and Theater an der Wien. He maintains a particularly close association with conductor Philippe Herreweghe and has collaborated frequently with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and other period-instrument ensembles. Traditional orchestras have also featured him prominently, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, and the Symphonieorchester des bayerischen Rundfunks. In recital he has performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe and additional lieder, most often with pianist Gerold Huber. His recordings, issued chiefly on the Oehms, Phi, and Harmonia Mundi labels, center on song repertoire; in 2019 he sang Florestan on René Jacobs’s recording of Beethoven’s Leonore, the composer’s first version of Fidelio, Op. 72, and the following year he appeared in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Hob. 21/2, for the Alpha label’s Haydn 2032 series.