Solist

Reinhard Mayr

Bassist Reinhard Mayr was born in Grieskirchen in Upper Austria. He began his training as a singer with the bass Franz Kalchmair, continued at the Anton Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, moved to the Music Academy of the City of Basel to Kurt Widmer and finally to Robert Holl at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Immediately after his studies he was engaged at the Volksoper Wien, made his debut at the Vienna State Opera shortly afterwards and moved to the Zurich Opera House in 2001, where he remained an ensemble member for 16 seasons.

His repertoire ranges from baroque bass roles, such as Monteverdi’s Plutone or Tiridate in Handel’s »Radamisto«, to Mozart’s Sarastro (»Die Zauberflöte«), Bartolo (»Le nozze di Figaro«) and Masetto (»Don Giovanni«), numerous roles in Richard Strauss’ operas, but also in the Italian and Russian repertoire, to modern works and world premieres. Over the years he has worked with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta, Christoph von Dohnáyi, Franz Welser-Möst, Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Marc Minkowski, William Christie and Thomas Hengelbrock.

In addition to opera, the singer devotes himself intensively to lied and oratorio. Above all, sacred baroque music and the lieder of Franz Schubert are among his special preferences. As a concert singer, he has performed at venues such as the Vienna Musikverein, the Royal Albert Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the concert halls in Vienna and Berlin, and Severance Hall in Cleveland. Reinhard Mayr has also performed regularly for many years with various baroque ensembles, such as Thomas Hengelbrock’s Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, the L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra and the Ensemble ColCanto, with whom he recorded a CD of solo sacred cantatas in 2015.

Reinhard Mayr first appeared at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in 2022 as prison warden Frank in »Die Fledermaus«.