Biography

Jochen Kupfer was born in Grimma, Germany, and has been studying voice regularly since the age of ten. He began his conservatory studies with Professor Helga Forner at the Musikhochschule Leipzig. Study with Elio Battaglia, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf completed his training.

Mr. Kupfer has sung with such distinguished conductors as René Jacobs, Krzystztof Penderecki, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Gary Bertini, Phillip Herrewhege, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Helmuth Rilling and Trevor Pinnock.

Concert tours have taken him from famous European cities to Japan to the United States, with concerts in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Carnegie Hall in New York City. He has also worked at many international music festivals, most notably Nuits Romantiques in Aix-les-Bains, Ile de France Paris, Festival International de Musique et díArt Lyrique Montreux, the Rossini Festival and the Salzburg Festival.

Among his operatic repertoire are such roles as Wolfram in Wagnerís Tannhäuser, Olivier in Straussí Capriccio and Harlekin in Aariadne auf Naxos.

He is engaged at the Semper Oper in Dresden, where he sings roles such as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte. A recent guest engagement has taken him to the Staatsoper ëUnter den Lindení in Berlin and to the Bayrische Staatsoper Munich.

In addition to his work in the fields of opera and concert singing, Mr. Kupfer has a special preference for the art of Lieder singing. In 1996 he sang Mahlerís Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen for the first time with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig under the baton of Kurt Masur.

His discography includes Konstabel in Straussí Friedenstag for Deutsche Grammophon and CDs of Schumann songs for Channel Classics as well as the complete songs of Franz Schreker.