Matthias Goerne

Born in Weimar in 1967, Matthias Goerne studied voice with Hans-Joachim Beyer, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Song recitals and concert performances lie at the heart of his artistic work, with a repertoire ranging from early music through the Classical and Romantic eras to contemporary works. Early in his career, he collaborated with pianists including Alfred Brendel and Vladimir Ashkenazy; in recent years, his piano partners have included Leif Ove Andsnes, Christoph Eschenbach, Markus Hinterhäuser, Daniil Trifonov, and Alexandre Kantorow. Goerne has also enjoyed a successful operatic career, appearing at the Vienna, Bavarian, and Saxon Staatsoper companies; the Royal Opera House in London; the Metropolitan Opera in New York; La Scala in Milan; and the Opéra national de Paris. His repertoire today centers particularly on the major Strauss and Wagner roles, including Orest in Elektra and Barak in Die Frau ohne Schatten, as well as Wotan in the Ring, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, Amfortas in Parsifal, and Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde. More recently, Goerne has even taken on several bass roles, including Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and King Marke in Wagner’s Tristan. His conducting collaborators have included Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, and Franz Welser-Möst. In 2026, Goerne made his directorial debut with Strauss’s Salome at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse. His recordings, including a twelve-part Schubert edition, have earned distinctions including a Grammy Award, the Diapason d’or, the ICMA Award, and the German Record Critics’ Award. Most recently, in summer 2026, he released the Schumann album Zwielicht with Markus Hinterhäuser at the piano. Matthias Goerne is an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Lucerne Festival (IMF) debut on 1 September 1999 in Schubert’s Winterreise, with Alfred Brendel at the piano; most recent appearance on 4 September 2019 as Kurwenal in Act II of Wagner’s Tristan, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding.

October 2026