Benjamin Appl, baritone
Photo by Lars Borges
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MANAGEMENT (NORTH AMERICAN CONCERT BOOKINGS)
Christina Jensen, christina@jensenartists.com
Gina Meola, gina@jensenartists.com
646.536.7864
“the way he navigated the song’s transformation, from disappointment to obsession, was so gripping and troublingly real, I heard people all around me exhale afterward, as if Mr. Appl had rendered them breathless.”
Baritone Benjamin Appl is celebrated for a voice that “belongs to the last of the old great masters of song” with “an almost infinite range of colours” (Suddeutsche Zeitung).
A former BBC New Generation Artist (2014-16), Wigmore Hall Emerging Artist and ECHO Rising Star (2015-16), Benjamin was named Gramophone Award Young Artist of the Year in 2016. He signed exclusively to Sony Classical that same year and later began a multi-album deal with Alpha Classics, whose first release Winterreise (2021), won widespread acclaim.
Appl’s musical journey began as a chorister with the renowned Regensburger Domspatzen, later continuing his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Mentored by the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Appl describes the partnership as an “invaluable and a hugely formative influence. He [Fischer-Dieskau] is an inspiration – someone who is always searching and seeking a deeper understanding of music and of life. He was a role model for how to prosper as an artist, never just delivering, but each time creating.”
An established recitalist, Appl has appeared at major music festivals worldwide including Ravinia, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein, Edinburgh, Heidelberg Frühling, Oxford, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and the KlavierFestival Ruhr. His concert performances have taken him to many prestigious venues including the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Musée du Louvre, Palau de la Musica, Philharmonie de Paris and Shanghai Symphony Hall.
In equal demand as soloist with orchestra, his recent collaborators include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Klaus Mäkelä, Oslo Philharmonic/Klaus Mäkelä, Munich Philharmonic/Andrew Manze, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse/Ton Koopman, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Andreas Reize, NHK Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi, Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann, Philharmonia/Maxim Emelyanychev, Seattle Symphony/Thomas Dausgaard and Vienna Symphony/ Karina Canellakis. In the 2024/25 season, Benjamin was named Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, making his conducting debut in a sold-out New Year’s performance of Handel’s Messiah.
Some of Appl’s recent recital debuts include Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Performances, Dallas Opera, Boston Celebrity Series, New York’s Park Avenue Armory (of all three Schubert song cycles), Sydney Opera House, Mozarteum Salzburg, Festival St. Denis, and three presentations of Winterreise by the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona. A creative and innovative programmer, Benjamin seeks out diverse and enriching onstage partnerships including with pianists James Baillieu, Graham Johnson, David Fray, Alice Sara Ott, Arthur & Lucas Jussen, and Kit Armstrong; the Armida String Quartet; accordionists Martynas Levickis and Ksenija Sidorova and lutenist Thomas Dunford.
A revered interpreter of early music, Benjamin enjoys regular collaborations with Les Talens Lyriques, B’Rock, Ensemble Masques and the Berliner Barocksolisten. Equally at home in new music, Benjamin has premiered compositions by Jörg Widmann, Nico Muhly, David Lang and Matthias Pintscher, as well as enjoying a significant long-term partnership with composer György Kurtág.
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On the opera stage, Appl recently performed Papageno Die Zauberflöte at the Hamburgische Staatsoper and Opéra Rouen, made his role and house debut as Harlequin Ariadne auf Naxos at Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona and looks forward to his upcoming house and role debut at the Teatro Real Madrid as Mercutio Roméo et Juliette.
In 2025, Appl released two albums, each devoted to a significant figure in his musical career: Lines of Life dedicated to György Kurtág, and For Dieter to his longtime mentor and teacher Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. Other recent standout recordings include The Christmas Album (2024) with the Regensburger Domspatzen, Forbidden Fruit (2023), Schubert Lieder with orchestra (Münchner Rundfunkorchester), Hans Sommer songs (RSB), Schumann duets with Ann Murray, and a Wigmore Hall Live Schubert recital with Graham Johnson. His Sony debut album Heimat was Gramophone-nominated and won the Prix Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (2017–18).
Beyond the concert hall, Appl has starred in a filmed realisation of Schubert’s Winterreise in the Swiss Alps, commissioned by the BBC and SRF broadcast on BBC4 in 2022. He also presented BBC Radio 3’s A Singer’s World and appeared in Breaking Music, a film exploring the meeting of Argentinian tango and German Lied. Benjamin is Professor of German Song at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
“Appl is not only a singer of boundless promise, he is already a great artist. This disc shows how versatile he is, with not only great Lieder but interesting rarities too…Appl sounds as if singing is his most natural mode of expression; and since he has an extraordinary beautiful voice, there should be decades of happiness as he continues to expand his repertoire.”
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PHOTOS
“The voice has a burnished, oaky beauty as well as considerable sweetness, while the interpretations are suffused with a gentle intelligence, an instinct for unforced but direct communication and what feels like a real love for the repertoire.”