André Schuen and Daniel Heide
Biography André Schuen and Daniel Heide
Andrè Schuen
The baritone Andrè Schuen comes from the Ladin La Val (South Tyrol, Italy).
He studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg under Prof. Horiana Branisteanu, as well as song and oratorio under Prof. Wolfgang Holzmair. He attended master courses by Kurt Widmer, Sir Thomas Allen, Brigitte Fassbaender, Marjana Lipovsek, Romualdo Savastano and Olaf Bär. In 2009 Andrè Schuen won a prize at the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum, and won first prize at the song competition of the Walter und Charlotte Hamel Foundation. In 2010 he passed his diploma in opera, song and oratorio at the Mozarteum with distinction, and was awarded Hanna Ludwig Prize and the Lilli Lehmann Medal.
During his emerging career he has already had guest performances with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Mozarteum-Orchester, the Camerata Salzburg and other well-known orchestras. Concerts, festivals and TV performances have taken him to Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Tokyo, Puebla (Mexico), Buenos Aires and Ushuaia (Argentina).
After gathering experience at the Salzburg Festival in 2006, he took on the role of the lackey in a 2007/08 production by the Salzburg Landestheater in the Haus für Mozart of Ariadne auf Naxos, directed by Ivor Bolton. Futhermore, he could be heard in the title role of Le nozze di Figaro at the Mozarteum and various smaller stages in Germany and Austria. In 2009, Andrè Schuen was again a guest at the Salzburg Festival, performing in Al gran sole carico d´amore by Luigi Nono, directed by Ingo Metzmacher. In 2010 he was accepted by the Young Singers Project in Salzburg. Following this, he took part in several productions in Salzburg in 2011: by invitation of Sir Simon Rattle in Richard Strauss's Salome at the Easter Festival, as well as, in the summer of that year, in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, directed by Riccardo Muti, and in Igor Stravinsky's Rossignol, directed by I. Bolton. He was a guest performer at the Vlaamse Opera Antwerp/Ghent as Don Alvaro in Rossini's Il viaggio à Reims under the direction of Alberto Zedda. In 2012 he sang the role of Moralès in Bizet's Carmen at the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Summer Festival, both conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Shortly after, he made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonic with this production, which is now also available on CD with EMI.
Since September 2010 he has been a member of the ensemble of the Graz Opera, where he could be heard as Jeletzky (Pique Dame), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Belcore (Elisir d'amore), Ford (Falstaff) and lastly as the title role in Gasparone. Future role debuts include Papageno (Magic Flute) and Roi Alphonse (La favorite). Andrè Schuen will perform the title role in Don Giovanni in Montpellier, and, in the 2013/14 season, as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He will make his debut at the Theater an der Wien with this role, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Andrè Schuen has sung, in addition to numerous masses and cantatas, J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio, The Passion of St John, and Mass in B minor, J. Haydn's The Creation, G.F. Handel's Messiah, W.A. Mozart's Requiem, Brahms's A German Requiem, and finally Mendelssohn's Walpurgisnacht, at the Oratorium. In 2013 his repertoire will be extended with the role of Christ in Bach's St Matthew Passion (for the first time with Philippe Herrweghe) and Fauré's Requiem, which he will be performing with the Berliner Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid. In 2014 he can be heard at the Orchestre national de Lille with Mahler's Liedern eines fahrenden Gesellen.
He has been working on lieder with the pianist Daniel Heide – his constantly expanding repertoire includes Schubert's Winterreise, Schumann's Dichterliebe and Song Cycle op.24, Wolf's Harfner-Gesänge, Ibert's Don Quichotte-Lieder, Martin's Jedermann-Monologe as well as selected songs of various epochs. In 2009 he premiered the song cycle ...bald ist mir nimmer kalt (12 lieder with texts by Norbert C. Kaser for vocals and percussion) by Herbert Grassl. In the 2014/15 season he has been invited to make his debut at the London Wigmore Hall.
