About this Artist

German tenor WERNER GÜRA, born in Munich, received his musical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and completed his vocal studies with Professor Kurt Widmer. He was also coached by Nicolai Gedda, Professor Margreet Honig, and Professor Wessela Zlateva.

After guesting at the opera houses of Frankfurt and Basel, in 1995 he joined the ensemble of the Semperoper Dresden, where he sang the Mozart and Rossini parts of his Fach. Daniel Barenboim invited Werner Güra to the Staatsoper Berlin for Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Belmonte), Così fan tutte, Il barbiere di Siviglia (Count Almaviva), and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. He sang opera productions at Teatro Carlo Felice, Genova, the Opera of Lille, La Monnaie Brussels, and the Opéra National de Paris.

Werner Güra devotes a great deal of his time to concerts, and in particular to the oratoria works and masses by Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven. He appears on important European concert stages, such as Konzerthaus and Musikverein Wien, Royal Festival Hall London, and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and worked with many important orchestras including Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester, Wiener Symphoniker, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the German, Dutch, Spanish, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Gulbenkian Orchestra Lissabon, with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Michel Corboz, Marcus Creed, Adam Fischer, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Ton Koopman, Kurt Masur, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, Helmuth Rilling, András Schiff, and Ralf Weikert. The tenor enjoys frequent cooperation with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, under whose baton he appeared at Wiener Musikverein, Styriarte Festival, Philharmonie München, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and on tour in Japan.

Werner Güra is also much appreciated as a Lied interpreter and gives recitals in London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center New York, at the Barcelona Schubertiade, and the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, among others. For Harmonia Mundi France he recorded an impressive number of solo recordings, all of which received the Diapason d’Or and were elected Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. For his Winterreise recording he received the BBC Music Magazine “Vocal” Award in 2011, and his latest Schubert-recording, Willkommen und Abschied, was awarded the prestigious German ECHO Klassik prize in 2012.