Born in Augsburg (Germany) 1962, Martin Kränzle dedicated himself to singing after having played the violine, composing and studying to be a music theatre director. The baritone studied voice with Martin Gründler at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. After engagements in Dortmund and Hanover, he has been member of the Frankfurt Opera since 1998. Guest contracts led him to the Scala in Milan, to the Salzburger and Bregenzer Festspiele, to the Glyndebourne Festival, he did four productions at the San Francisco Opera, he sung in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Geneve, Sofia, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Tbilisi
and Spoleto (Italy).
His wide repertoire encludes over 100 roles, such as all leading characters of Mozart (Giovanni, Papageno, Don Alfonso, Conte Almaviva) and Rossini (Figaro, Dandini), Eisenstein (The Bat) and Danilo (Merry Widow), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Beckmesser (Meistersinger), Alberich (Rheingold),
Ford (Falstaff), Bolkonski (Prokofieff: War and Peace), Tomsky (Pique Dame), Billy Budd (Britten), Nietzsche (Rihm: Dionysos - First performance at Salzburg Festival) and Orphee (Offenbach) with the self-played Violinsolo.
He regularly gives concerts and song recitals (e.g. at the Schleswig-Holstein-Festival, Goethehaus Frankfurt, Spring Festival in Budapest, Expo 2000 Hanover) as well as oratorios (e.g. in Notre Dame Paris, Dom in Cologne, Dormition Abbey Jerusalem, Vilnius Festival). He received various prizes
at singing contests in Berlin, Vercelli (Viotti), Hanover, Perpignan, Paris (Placido Domingo), and since he got the Primo Grande Premio in Rio de Janeiro 1991 he holds visiting professorships at various Brazilian universities.
His chamber opera Der Wurm was awarded 3rd prize in the composition contest of the Neuköllner Opera, Berlin, in 1997. At the moment Oehms Classics has produced his first Solo-CD “Die Mitternacht zog näher schon” with Ballads from Loewe, Schumann, Schubert, Mahler, Wolf and Busoni.
He was annouced as “Singer of the Year” 2011 from the leading opera magazine Opernwelt. He was also awarded the “Kölner Opernpreis” 2012. At the moment he appears at Staatsoper Berlin and Teatro alla Scala Milano in Wagners Ring of the Nibelung as Alberich, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
Hilko Dumno Piano
Hilko Dumno studied Piano, Chamber Music and Song Interpretation at the Hochschulen in Detmold and Frankfurt am Main. Among his teachers were Gregor Weichert, Rainer Hoffmann, Tabea Zimmermann and Eugen Wangler. He was a scholarship holder from the Endowment of the Arts, officially sponsored by the German Government, the Villa Musica Mainz and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.
He has regular collaboration with Christoph Pregardien, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Hans-Jörg Mammel, Georg Poplutz, Hedwig Fassbender and Julia Kleiter whom he has accompanied at various Festivals among which are Schleswig-Holstein, Schwetzingen, Dresden, Luzern, Geneva, the Styriarte in Graz and the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg. Further concert tours brought him to North America and Japan. He has taken part for several broadcasting productions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He has also produced CDs with Christoph Pregardien and Julia Kleiter, with Johannes Martin Kränzle
and Hedwig Fassbender. Hilko Dumno teaches Song Interpretation at the Hochschule for Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main and gives regularly Masterclasses in Germany, Italy and France.
