Mathias Hausmann, Baritone

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 7:30pm
Terrace Theater

From Austria, with love..."

A program featuring Austrian composers who have lived and worked in the United States including Mahler, Korngold, Zeisl, Krenek, Stolz and Kálmán

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The young Austrian baritone Mathias Hausmann has become widely recognized for a series of international TV, DVD, and CD productions from the Salzburg Festival, the Teatro alla Scala, and the Mörbisch Festival. From 2004 to 2009, he has been a member of the Volksoper in Vienna, where, within a very short time, he has become the darling of the audience. He also considers Milan’s Teatro alla Scala a second artistic home where he was part of the prestigious opening night 2009 with Daniel Barenboim.

Mathias Hausmann, with his elegantly rounded tone, liquid legato and warmly communicative phrasing, possesses one of the most sheerly beautiful voices you're likely to hear today... —The Washington Post, June 2008

Hausmann studied with Karl Ernst Hoffmann in Graz, Walter Berry in Vienna, and Ryland Davies at the Royal College of Music in London. He also worked with singers such as Sir Thomas Allen, Cecilia Bartoli, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Quasthoff, Grace Bumbry, and Ileana Cotrubas. He is grateful to his mentor, Thomas Hampson, from whom he gained many important artistic instincts.

His roles include Papageno, Guglielmo, and Conte Almaviva; Rossini’s Barbiere and Dandini; Marcello; Eisenstein; Dr. Falke; and Danilo. He was also heard in the Austrian debut performance of "Sophie’s Choice" with Angelika Kirschschlager.

Mathias Hausmann frequently performs at festivals such as Salzburg and Edinburgh, the London Handel Festival, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Klangbogen and Osterklang Vienna, Styriarte, the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, and the Festival Latour de France. He has performed at such venues as the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées; the Hollywood Bowl, the Bunka Kaikan Hall in Tokyo; the Danish Royal Opera House, the Teatro Teresa Careňo in Caracas; the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, the opera houses of Antwerp, Gent, and Berne; the Wigmore Hall London; Gewandhaus Leipzig; Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater Munich; at the Philharmonies in Luxembourg, Munich, Düsseldorf, Essen and Cologne; and the Vienna Statesopera, Konzerthaus, and Musikverein.

He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, Stuttgart’s Bach Academy, the Symphonieorchester des BR, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, the Concerto Köln, the Haydn Philharmonie Eisenstadt, and the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. Conductors with whom he has worked include Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Karel Mark Chichon, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Adam Fischer, Asher Fisch, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Julia Jones, Ton Koopman, Yannik Nézet-Séguin, Hellmuth Rilling, and Sebastian Weigle.

Hausmann’s most recent and upcoming engagements include his debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; returns to Japan and the Teatro alla Scala, and Mozarts c-minor Mass with Christopher Hogwood.

His recital program, Songs of War, alongside Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave and pianist Julius Drake, will be presented internationally in 2012.

Pianist Craig Rutenberg,"whose playing ranged from sterling directness to expansive beauty," (San Francisco Chronicle) has collaborated with many of the world's greatest vocalists and is recognized as one of the most distinguished accompanists on the stage today.

Having studied piano and interpretation with John Wustman, Geoffrey Parsons, Pierre Bernac and Miriam Solovieff, Mr. Rutenberg has appeared in recital with Denyce Graves, Sumi Jo, Harolyn Blackwell, Susanne Mentzer, Frederica von Stade, Angelika Kirchschlager, Dawn Upshaw, Thomas Hampson, Ben Heppner and Jerry Hadley as well as Olaf Baer, Simon Keenlyside and José van Dam. He has performed with Mr.Hampson at the White House under the Clinton administration.

Mr. Rutenberg, whose recording with Susanne Mentzer prompted Opera News to praise him for "(making) the piano sing with clean articulation and a palette of colors to coordinate with…every mood," records for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI/Angel, BMG/RCA and Koch International. He has appeared repeatedly in concert on national and international television and radio, including numerous PBS specials.

Currently Head of Music Administration at the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Rutenberg is also guest coach at The Royal Opera in Stockholm, the Gothenburg Opera and The Norwegian Opera in Oslo.

He has coached and given master classes at the Ryan Opera Center for American Artists at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theatre, the Santa Fe Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Craig Rutenberg has also worked for the Opera Studio de Paris, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, and the Vancouver Opera.

In addition to his duties at the Metropolitan Opera and his teaching activities in the 2011-2012 season, Mr. Rutenberg appears in recital with Christine Brewer, Marcello Giordani, Eric Owens, Mathias Hausmann and Thomas Hampson. As a solo pianist, he is recording the complete piano music of Virgil Thomson for the Virgil Thomson Foundation's label, Everbest.