Christoph Genz

Christoph Genz is a German tenor who began to make a reputation in the late 1990s. He was a member of the renowned Leipzig Thomanerchor, an organization that was once one of Johann Sebastian Bach's choirs. He studied at King's College, Cambridge, in England, and was a member of the famous Choir of King's College. His teachers are Hans-Joachim Beyer and the great soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Early in his career he won First Prizes in the Leipzig Bach Competition and the Grimsby International Singers Competition in England. Genz made an initial strong showing in the leading Mozart tenor roles of Tamino (The Magic Flute) and Fernando (Così fan tutte). He made a Wigmore Hall recital appearance in London in July 2000, receiving acclaim there and in the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Concertgebouw recital hall in Amsterdam. Genz has worked with conductors Herbert Blomstedt, Philippe Herreweghe, Franz Brüggen, Sir Simon Rattle, and Peter Schreier. He recorded Bach cantatas with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and has been chosen by Maestro Gardiner to participate in the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage Tour by Gardiner with his Monteverdi Singers Choir and English Baroque Soloists. Genz has also recorded Bach's Passion According to St. John, BWV 245, with Ludwig Güttler and Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos under the late Giuseppe Sinopoli. His brother Stephan Genz, a baritone, likewise began singing in the Thomanerchor.