Werner Güra
Tenor
German tenor Werner Güra, born in Munich, received his musical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and completed his vocal studies with Professor Kurt Widmer. Furthermore, he was coached by Nicolai Gedda, Professor Margreet Honig in Amsterdam and Professor Wessela Zlateva in Vienna.
After being a guest at the opera houses of Frankfurt and Basel, he joined the ensemble of the Semperoper Dresden in 1995, where he sang the important Mozart and Rossini parts of his Fach. Daniel Barenboim invited Werner Güra for various productions to the Staatsoper Berlin and he sang his highly acclaimed Mozart roles at La Monnaie in Brussels at the Opéra National de Paris, and at the Zurich Opera.
At this stage of his career, Werner Güra concentrated his activities on the vocal-symphonic and Oratorio repertoire. He sang on the most prestigious European concert stages and worked with many orchestras including Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio with conductors such Riccardo Chailly, Adam Fischer, Pablo Heras-Casado, Philippe Herreweghe, Manfred Honeck, Philippe Jordan, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and many others. Werner Güra enjoyed close collaboration with Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Recent Highlights include Britten’s War Requiem with the Vienna Symphony and Philippe Jordan, Bach’s Magnificat with Concentus Musicus Wien and Stefan Gottfried, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Manfred Honeck in Munich, followed by Schubert’s Mass in E-flat major with The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Manfred Honeck. In addition to several recitals he could be heard in Bruckner´s Te Deum with the Pittsburgh Symphony under the baton of Manfred Honeck, Berlioz‘ Requiem with Marc Soustrot in Leipzig and Schumann´s Faust-Scenes with the Royal Concertgebouw Orkest and Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Amsterdam.
In the current season, Werner Güra is performing Mendelssohn's Lobgesangs-Symphonie under David Afkham in Madrid, Beethoven's IX. Symphony under Yannick Nézét-Séguin in Baden-Baden, as well as Mendelssohn's Elijah at the Ruhr Triennale in Bochum, with Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Concerto Köln and Kent Nagano in Cologne, with Haydn's Creation with Thomas Zehetmair in Clérmont-Ferrand and Vichy, with Beethoven's IX Symphony with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons. Other highlights include Handel's Caecilian Ode in Zurich, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in Barcelona, Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri at the Cologne Philharmonie, and Mendelssohn's Lobgesangs-Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Berlin.
Werner Güra is also much appreciated as Lied interpreter, regularly giving recitals amongst others at the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus Vienna, the Wigmore Hall London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Lincoln Center New York and the Schubertiades Schwarzenberg.
For Harmonia Mundi France he recorded an impressive number of solo-recordings. Some of them were awarded with prestigious prizes.
Werner Güra has been teaching at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2009.
