Holger Falk

“Falk sings with a tremendous tonal range that refuses to allow the audience to remain oblivious to the music involved: it is as though the lyrics are biting deeper into the ear with each syllable, each note. (...) Falk's capacity for creativity is sensational”, as die ZEIT and the Washington Post reported: "Falk is able to characterize every word so vividly that, if he were singing in Vedic Sanskrit, you’d get the message". Flexibility, vibrancy and immediacy of expression make Holger Falk an internationally sought-after interpreter. With his multiple opera appearances as well as being an avid concert and lieder singer, he is a guest at major houses throughout Europe and the USA, working with renowned conductors and directors.

Holger Falk has a great passion for contemporary music theatre, and several new scores were composed especially for him: he sang the world premières of The Golden Dragon by Peter Eötvös at the Oper Frankfurt and at the Bregenz Festival along with Ein Brief by Manfred Trojahn at the Oper Bonn. He has been nominated three times as singer of the year by Opernwelt magazine for his outstanding interpretations of Kassandra in Iannis Xenaki’s Oresteia (2017), Johannes in Georg Friedrich Haas‘ Morgen und Abend (2017) and of Lord Byron in Michael Wertmüller‘s world première DIODATI. UNENDLICH (2019). He has also performed works by composers including Wolfgang Rihm, Kaija Saariaho, Beat Furrer, Georges Aperghis, Bernhard Lang, Miroslav Srnka, Vladimir Tarnopolski and Steffen Schleiermacher and has appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Oper Köln, the Theater an der Wien, the Theater Basel, the Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Théâtre des Champs- Élysées Paris and the National Opera Warsaw.

Holger Falk regularly works with contemporary ensembles such as the Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Resonanz, Musikfabrik NRW, Doelen Ensemble Rotterdam, Basel Sinfonietta as well as with baroque ensembles including the Ensemble Elyma Genève (Monteverdi’s Orfeo), Elbipolis Hamburg (Graupner’s Dido), the Concerto Köln (Hasse’s Leucippo,) and the Kammerakademie Potsdam (Mendelssohn’s Elias).

In the season 2023/24, Holger Falk will perform the world premiere Septembersonate by Manfred Trojahn at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf (staging: Johannes Erath). Furthermore, he will sing recitals at the Kirchner Museum Davos, the Klangspuren Schwaz and the Society for Contemporary Music Mannheim i. a. and will interpret Hanns Eisler‘s Ernste Gesänge with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and Bas Wiegers.

Holger Falk's range of CD productions, including a four-part series of songs by Hanns Eislers (MDG), the complete recordings of the Mélodies et Chansons by Erik Satie and all 115 mélodies by Francis Poulenc (MDG) and Il Gondoliere Veneziano – a musical voyage through Venice (Prospero), received prestigious awards: German Record Critics' Award 2017, CD of the Month (Opernwelt), Gramophone Editor‘s Choice Award, ECHO Klassik Award 2016 as well as numerous, annual nominations from Opus Klassik. As Pizzicato writes of Holger Falk's song interpretations: "[Holger Falk] does not attempt to artificially refine the songs, but instead sings them as genuinely as possible with the particular timbre of the genre, spirit and power matched with sparkling rhetoric, sometimes calmly contemplative, sometimes spirited and passionate or even teasing". In 2022, the CD Keintate I, II (Friedrich Cerha) has been released (Kairos) together with the attensam quartett. He is currently working on the large-scale CD recording of the "groupe des six" composers. The "Mélodies & Chansons" by Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and Germaine Tailleferre have already been released, Georges Auric and Louis Durey will follow in 2024. In total, the series of the "groupe des six" composers will comprise 8 CDs.

Holger Falk began singing as a boy with the famous Regensburg Cathedral Boys’ Choir followed by vocal studies at the Wurzburg Conservatory, in Milan with Sigune von Osten, Franco Corelli and with Neil Semer, among others. Holger Falk is professor of Lied interpretation and performances practice for contemporary music at the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

Biography updated: April 24