Daniel Johannsen and Helmut Deutsch in Munich, the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “This captivating musicianship is driven by good taste, literally representing pure art.” Born in Vienna in 1978 and a student of Robert Holl and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, art song performance is close to Daniel Johannsen’s heart. His recital programs connect the early Baroque to modern-day musical settings of poetry and include a variety of vocal-instrumental chamber music. Apart from the great song cycles, his repertoire comprises more than 300 settings in German, French, and English, which he has performed with piano partners such as Graham Johnson, Charles Spencer, Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Burkhard Kehring.
A church musician by training, he studied song with Margit Klaushofer at the University of Music, Vienna, and successfully participated in many competitions (Bach, Schumann, Mozart, Wigmore Hall), winning prizes at an early age. His performances have taken place in the big musical centers of Europe, North America, Japan, and the Middle East. As a highly sought-after Bach-interpreter, he is a regular guest at the most important Cantata Projects (Netherlands Bach Society project “All of Bach” / J.S. Bach Foundation St. Gallen). He performs at major festivals (Styriarte Graz, Enescu Festival) and has sung under the batons of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and René Jacobs, for example with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden.
Daniel Johannsen has also established himself in opera, and has been heard in works by Handel, Mozart, and Britten at the Vienna Volksoper, Munich’s Gärtnerplatztheater, and the Leipzig Opera. He has recorded many CDs, published by Carus, Sony, and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. In 2019, SPEKTRAL published his first recording of Schubert songs, Lieder ohnegleichen (accompanied by Christoph Hammer on a historical Graf fortepiano from 1826), which was highly acclaimed by the media.
