LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
- Folksongs

ERNST KRENEK
- Fiedellieder, Op. 64 (aus dem Liederbuch dreier Freunde)
- Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen, Op. 62

FRANCIS POULENC
Les mamelles de Tirésias • Le bal masqué

FRANZ SCHUBERT
- Schwanengesang

-Die schöne Müllerin

- Winterreise

What the critics said:
OPERA NEWS 1/8/1996

Schubert Winterreise:
"This invigorating reading makes its inexorable progression through a series of perfectly crafted miniatures, each shaped by Holzmair's supple, handsome baritone into a cannily observed vignette of growing isolation. The Austrian baritone is alive to the text on every note but never overstates his intentions or parades his accomplishments..."

ROBERT SCHUMANN
- Dichterliebe, Op.48
- Heine-Lieder
- Liederkreis, Op.24

Wolfgang Holzmair was born in Vöcklabruck in Upper Austria and, after graduating from the Vienna University of Economics, studied singing at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, He won Second Prize at the 1981 's-Hertogenbosch competition in The Netherlands, and in 1982 was the winner of the Vienna Musikverein International Competition for Lieder Singers.

His first operatic engagements were in Bern (Switzerland) and Gelsenkirchen (Germany) where he song roles such as Figaro (11 barbiere di Siviglia), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Valentin (Faust) and Olivier (Capriccio). He scored a major success as Hans Scholl in Udo Zimmerman's Die weiße Rose, a role he has also sung at both the Vienna State Opera and the Zurich Opera House. One of his favourite operatic roles is Debussy's Pelléas, which he sang for the first time at the Zurich Festival in June 1989.

Other operatic engagements include Eisenstein in a production of Die Fledermaus at Lisbon Opera House and Abbate in Busoni's Arlecchino at the Opera de Lyon. In November 1992 he sang Papageno at Leipzig Opera with Sir Yehudi Menuhin conducting.In summer 1993 he made his debut at Salzburg Festival in a Monteverdi opera production and an orchestral concert, both under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The latter invited him to sing Homonay in, The Gypsy Baron (1994), Ottokar in Der Freischütz (1995) and Creonte in Haydn's L'anima del filosofo (Orfeo ed Euridice) at the Vienna Festival (1995). Also, he worked with Seiji Ozawa in a production of Les mamelles de Tirésias by Poulenc at the 1996 Saito Kinen Festival in Japan.

In addition to opera Wolfgang Holzmair is sought after as a concert singer and especially as a Lieder recitalist, At the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 1991 he sang early Mahler songs in a new orchestration made by Luciano Berio, who was also conductor on the occasion. In January 1992 he was invited by The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnanyi to Haifa and Tel Aviv to sing in Weill's Die sieben Todsünden and in March 1992 he made his debut with The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the title role of Henze's A Country Doctor. It was also Maestro Dohnanyi who invited him in April 1992 to the Cleveland Orchestra for Mahler's Rückert-Lieder
Wolfgang Holzmair has given Lieder recitals throughout the world, In England he rapidly gained popularity after a very successful debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1989. He has since returned for several recitals as in the gala for the reopening of the Wigmore Hall on 12. November 1992, together with such singers as Margaret Price, Barbara Bonney, Keith Lewis and others. Since his U.S. debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1992 and his first recital in New York in 1993 he has returned regularly to the States for concerts and recitals.

In addition to operatic and concert repertoire his recordings include Lieder by Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, as the Vienna Classic by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven and a recital entitled Two Centuries of Byron in Song.

Photo: Gabriela Brandenstein