Andrè Schuen

For Andrè Schuen, making music is as natural as speaking. The baritone, who grew up in a multilingual family of musicians, communicates in melodies as fluently as he does in German, Italian, or Ladin, a dialect spoken in South Tyrol, where Schuen was born. Schuen's repertoire includes lieder and opera, as well as traditional Ladin folk music. However, it always spans the entire spectrum of human emotions and always reflects the singer's passion for words and his respect for their meaning. Critics are enthusiastic about Schuen's amalgam of vocal authority, tonal warmth, and expressive intellect. "This dark, effortless baritone is among the most beautiful voices one can currently hear; it is an unreservedly magnificent voice," judges the Frankfurter Rundschau, while Gramophone praises his enormous expressive range and his ability to produce "long, tranquil vocal lines" that flow with "consummate ease." Exclusive interviews with Andrè Schuen Watch on STAGE+ Andrè Schuen is an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon. In March 2021, his DG debut album featuring Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, recorded with pianist Daniel Heide, was released. In their review of the album, The Sunday Times lauded the singer's "emotional truthfulness." Following this success, Schuen released a recording of Schubert's final song cycle, Schwanengesang, again with his long-time duo partner Daniel Heide. Schwanengesang was released to great acclaim in November 2022, with Gramophone celebrating Schuen's "fresh, wonderfully clear baritone, with breath control that allows him to tackle long vocal lines, with insightful musical purpose and clear articulation of the text." The album was awarded an Opus Klassik in 2023. With a celebrated recording of Winterreise, Schuen and Heide concluded their trilogy of great Schubert song cycles in May 2024 ("Singer and pianist span the dramatic arc of the cycle with fine intuition, immersing themselves completely in each character and maintaining this intensity through a thoughtful, musically coherent line" – Gramophone). The recording also served as the soundtrack for the animated/live-action film A Winter’s Journey by director Alex Helfrecht, starring John Malkovich, Marcin Czarnik, and Jason Isaacs, among others. The singer fulfilled his long-held wish to record a Mozart album with his latest release: Mozart features excerpts from Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, and Don Giovanni. Schuen is accompanied by the Mozarteum Orchestra under chief conductor Roberto González-Monjas. Three duets with soprano Nikola Hillebrand are also featured on the album, as are several works with piano accompaniment (again with Daniel Heide) and "Komm, liebe Zither" with mandolinist and DG exclusive artist Avi Avital. Mozart is set to be released in July 2025. This summer, Schuen will portray the title role in the new production of Don Giovanni at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, directed by Robert Icke and conducted by Simon Rattle (July 4–18, 2025). With Daniel Heide, he will perform a concert featuring works by R. Strauss, Wagner, and Zemlinsky at Schloss Ettersburg in Weimar (August 13), as well as at the Salzburg Festival (August 16), the Herbstgold Festival at Schloss Esterházy (September 19), and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (September 23). Additionally, the duo will perform Winterreise at the Tivoli in Copenhagen (August 19). In November, Schuen will sing Ford in Mario Martone's production of Verdi's Falstaff at the Berlin State Opera. Born in La Val, South Tyrol, in 1984, Andrè Schuen studied cello as a child; he also played and sang Ladin folk music in a family ensemble that included his mother, father, two sisters, and a cousin. He later turned to singing and was accepted into the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he studied with Romanian soprano Horiana Brănişteanu and received instruction in lieder and oratorio from his baritone colleague Wolfgang Holzmair. His training also included masterclasses with Kurt Widmer, Thomas Allen, Brigitte Fassbaender, Marjana Lipovšek, and Olaf Bär, among others. In 2009, Schuen performed as a singer and actor at the Salzburg Festival in Luigi Nono's Al gran sole carico d’amore and became a member of the festival's Young Singers Project the following year. After graduating with distinction in 2010, Schuen was a member of the Graz Opera for four years and made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle in 2011. He garnered critical acclaim in 2014 when he was one of only a few performers to appear in each of the three Da Ponte operas in Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Mozart cycle at the Theater an der Wien, portraying the roles of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Guglielmo. In 2017, he made his US debut, giving recitals with Thomas Adès at the Tanglewood Festival and with Andreas Haefliger at the Aspen Music Festival. His partnership with pianist Daniel Heide is confirmed in concerts and on albums, including regular performances at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg/Hohenems. 5/2025