Markus Schäfer
Lyric tenor Markus Schäfer is especially identified with Baroque music but also sings lieder and 19th century vocal repertory as far forward in time as Mahler. He is also a noted educator.
Schäfer was born on June 13, 1961, in Andernach in western Germany, and grew up in nearby Bad Ems. His father was a church musician. Schäfer at first aimed toward a church career himself, studying that field in the cities of Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf, but voice lessons with Armand McLane steered him toward singing, as did a stint at the International Opera Studio in Zürich, Switzerland. Schäfer sang in opera productions there and then joined the cast of the Zürich Opera. He moved on to the Hamburg Staatsoper and then the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. He also built a career as a lieder singer, often appearing at summer festivals, but also as far afield as Lincoln Center in New York and Wigmore Hall in London. As Schäfer's career developed, he gravitated toward early music. He sang both concert works and opera with the early music group La Petite Band under director Sigiswald Kuijken, and he appeared in 2014 in a 300th-anniversary performance of C.P.E. Bach's oratorio Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu with the orchestra Das kleine Konzert and the Rheinische Kantorei choir. He has often sung solos with the Windsbacher Knabenchor boychoir and is a member of the male vocal quartet Liedertafel.
Schäfer has been heard as a soloist on several acclaimed recordings, including conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Grammy Award-winning 1994 reading of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244. As a solo artist, he has a varied catalog of recordings on such labels as Naxos, Wergo, and Avi-Music, where he recorded an album of Schubert songs called Schwanengesänge in 2019. In 2020, he appeared on a Naxos recording of Johann Simon Mayr's rare opera Le due duchesse. Schäfer is a professor of voice at the Musikhochschule Hannover.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Mendelssohn: Complete Symphonies
Heidelberger Sinfoniker, German Chamber Choir, Ulrika Stromstedt, Markus Schäfer, Eleonore Marguerre, Thomas Fey
Classical - Released by haenssler CLASSIC on 2 Mar 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: The Small Song Cycles
Classical - Released by Passacaille on 21 May 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert, Die Winterreise
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released by CAvi-music on 14 May 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Musical Humour with the Bach Family
Classical - Released by CPO on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Eybler: Die vier letzten Dinge
Kleine Konzert, Das, Rheinische Kantorei, Peter Kooij, Elisabeth Scholl, Markus Schäfer, Hermann Max
Classical - Released by CPO on 1 Apr 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.C. Bach: Salve Regina
Emma Kirkby, Markus Schäfer, L'Orfeo Barockorchester, Michi Gaigg
Classical - Released by CPO on 13 May 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Max Reger - 12 Lieder op. 51; 17 Gesänge op. 70
Markus Schäfer, Ernst Breidenbach
Classical - Released by Dreyer Gaido on 17 Mar 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Violeta Dinescu: Trajektorie
Irene Kurka, Gudula Rosa, Markus Schäfer, Marko Kassl, Violeta Dinescu
Classical - Released by Dreyer Gaido on 18 Nov 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mayr: Venetian Solo Motets
Andrea Lauren Brown, Markus Schäfer, Virtuosi Italiani , Virgil Mischok, Franz Hauk
Classical - Released by Naxos on 8 Jun 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (Arr. A. Schoenberg & R. Riehn for Voice & Chamber Ensemble)
Markus Schäfer, Ivonne Fuchs, Linos Ensemble
Chamber Music - Released by CapriccioNR on 4 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Guided Tour of the Baroque Era, Vol. 5
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Naxos Special Projects on 16 Apr 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Edition des Lieder (Intégrale, volume 25) : Poètes romantiques (Volume 2)
Classical - Released by Naxos on 14 Nov 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wilhelm Killmayer: Sommersneige - Summer’s End
Markus Schäfer, Siegfried Mauser
Classical - Released by wergo on 29 Sep 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart, W.A.: Zaide [Opera]
Isabel Monar, Markus Schäfer, Markus Brutscher, Christian Hilz, Orchester Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck
Full Operas - Released by CPO on 1 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Peter Cornelius : Complete Songs, Vol. 3
Lieder (German) - Released by Naxos on 28 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franz Schubert - Lieder - Goldner Schein Deckt Den Hain
Thomas Seyboldt, Frank Laffin, Markus Schäfer, Hubert Mayer, Hans Christoph Begemann, Cornelius Hauptmann
Classical - Released by K&K Verlagsanstalt on 10 Apr 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vesque von Püttlingen: Die Heimkehr
Markus Schäfer, Christian De Bruyn, Johann Hoven
Classical - Released by Pan Classics on 4 Dec 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Igor Strawinsky: Symphonie De Psaumes
Windsbacher Knabenchor, Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Karl Friedrich Beringer, Claudia Barainsky, Markus Schäfer
Classical - Released by Rondeau Production on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Peter Cornelius : Complete Songs, Vol. 4
Classical - Released by Naxos on 31 Mar 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orff: Catulli Carmina - Stravinsky: The Wedding
Markus Schäfer, Elisabeth Krämer, Wolfgang Schafer, Frankfurter Kantorei
Classical - Released by VMS Musical Treasures on 1 Dec 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hommage à Dinu Lipatti
Markus Schäfer, Mihai Ungureanu
Classical - Released by Dreyer Gaido on 1 Oct 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo