Happy Birthday, Roland Hermann!

Roland Hermann

Perhaps we might have missed the birthday of one of our "historical hunks," German Roland Hermann, had it not been that he's in the biography of Dominik Köninger, who just won the Wigmore Hall song competition. Hermann helped hone Köninger's craft at the Karlsruhe State Musikhochschule in Germany.

Born in Bochum in 1936, the baritone Roland Hermann trained in Germany, Italy and the United States with Paul Lohmann and Margarete von Winterfeld. In 1968 he joined the ensemble of the Zurich Opera and simultaneously built an international reputation as an opera and concert singer.

Hermann's repertoire included some seventy rôles in a wide range of operas. He is known for his performances of contemporary music, with premières of works by Fortner, Halffter, Höller, Kelterborn, Krenek, Willi, Zender and Mauricio Kagel. He was particular known as a fine lieder singer and peformed in over fifty recordings and some hundred broadcasts. He has taught at the Karlsruhe State Musikhochschule since 1989.

Here is Hermann in Hans Werner Henze's "Ein Landarzt" (approx. 26 minutes):





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Two Barihunks in Wigmore/Kohl Finals

Jonathan McGovern - (credit: Maximilian Fuhrig)

Dominik Köninger

Two barihunks have survived to the Final Four in the Wigmore Hall/Kohl Foundation International Song Competition that we reported on a few days ago. Jonathan McGovern, who we first featured when he starred in Nico Muhly's "Two Boys" is one of the finalists. The other is German baritone Dominik Köninger who was new to the site. The first prize winner will receive £10,00, with the next two finishers receiving £5,000 and £2,500 respectively.

The final round will take place on Thursday, September 8. The finalists can perform songs in any language as long as the lied was written after 1900. They have up to 30 minutes to perform their selections. The non-baritones in the finals are mezzo Dorottya Lang and tenor Stuart Jackson.

Born in Heidelberg, the German baritone Dominik Köninger studied in Karlsruhe with Prof. Roland Hermann. Since his debut in 2004, he has performed at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Hamburg State Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Theater an der Wien or Bavarian State Opera. Starting with the 2012/13 season, Dominik will be an ensemble member of the Komische Oper Berlin and he will make his debut at NNT in Tokyo in 2013.

Here is Köninger singing Mozart's "Hai gia vinta la causa... Vedro mentr'io sospirio" from "Le nozze di Figaro":



Winner of the 2nd Prize at this year's Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Jonathan McGovern read Music at King’s College London and continued his studies with Philip Doghan and Audrey Hyland. He was winner of the gold medal and 1st Prize at the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition 2010. Recent highlights include recitals at Chester Music Festival, St James’ Piccadilly, the Forge Camden, Kings Place and the National Portrait Gallery. He was a member of the prestigious Royal Academy of Music Song Circle, and will join the Britten–Pears Young Artists in September for a new production of Albert Herring. He made his ENO debut this summer as Jake in the world-première of Nico Muhly’s opera Two Boys.

We couldn't find an audio or video clip of Jonathan McGovern to share with you. Admittedly, we find this a bid odd for a singer.

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Five Borough Songbook to Kick Off Festival; Wigmore Competition Underway

Festival founder Jesse Blumberg (L) & David Adam Moore (R)

We are huge fans of barihunk Jesse Blumberg, not just for his glorious singing and good looks, but as an impressario. Blumberg is the founder of the Five Boroughs Music Festival which is bringing interesting and entertaining music to all five boroughs in New York City.

The Festival's new season will kick off with the "Five Borough Songbook" featuring another one of our favorites, barihunk David Adam Moore, who will be joined by tenor Alex Richardson, soprano Martha Guth and mezzo Blythe Gaissart. They will be performing new songs from some of the best composers in the world today. Readers of this site will know that we're huge proponents of (good) new music and this performance promises and abundance of great music. Many of the composers have had their music prominently featured on this site, including Glen Roven, Jorge Martin, Ricky Ian Gordon and Daron Hagen.

The 20 songs will be premiered at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn on October 6, 2011. Click HERE for tickets and performance information.

Michael Kelly (L), Duncan Rock (Both C) & Dominik Koeninger (R)

Fans of Jesse Blumberg will be thrilled to learn that he is currently at the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition in London, England. The competition is dedicated to the art of lied and requires singers to perform in at least three languages. Blumberg will be performing with accompanist Jonathan Ware on September 5 and tickets can be purchased HERE. Other barihunks in this year's competition include Michael Kelly (whose entire recital we recently featured online), Andrew Ashwin, Duncan Rock, Jonathan McGovern and Dominik Koeninger.

For the next two weeks we will be accepting submissions for our first Barihunks charity calendar, which will benefit young artist programs. Send High Res photos and a brief bio to Barihunks@gmail.com

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