Benno Schachtner
Händel Festival Halle - Amagigi di Gaula
Countertenor Benno Schachtner was a revelation in the title role. His voice, warm and with a metallic sheen, traced Amadigi's emotional development with precision – from youthful devotion to tormented jealousy and finally to ultimate transcendence.
operawire (June 24, 2025)Season 26/27
WINDSBACH BOYS' CHOIR
Christmas Oratorio
Tentatively: December 16th, Nuremberg / December 17th, Weikersheim / December 18th, Ansbach
BACHFEST LEIPZIG
Bach – St. John Passion
June 17/18
Biography
In recent seasons, Benno Schachtner has established himself as one of Germany's leading countertenors.
In the 2026/27 season, Benno Schachtner will be touring with the Windsbach Boys' Choir, performing Bach's Christmas Oratorio. He will return to the Bachfest Leipzig with Bach's St. John Passion in the production by Sasha Waltz, which has already been performed at the Opéra de Dijon and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
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His most important engagements of recent seasons include performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion under Philippe Herreweghe as part of an extensive European tour, Bach cantatas with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at the Bachfest München , a concert tour with the Kammerchor Stuttgart as well as Bach's St. John Passion at the Bachfest Leipzig Other highlights included Bach's Mass in B minor in the production by the Hamburg State Ballet at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and at the Hamburg State Opera, the role of Refugee in Jonathan Dove's successful opera Flight at the Bonn Opera, and the staged version of the St. John Passion at the Salzburg Easter Festival and at the Opéra de Dijon.
He had previously made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York with works by Johann Sebastian Bach, sung in a new production of Handel's Teseo at Theater an der Wien and appeared at the Opéra national de Paris in Romeo Castellucci's new production of Scarlatti's Il primo omicidio , both conducted by René Jacobs. He also performed in this production at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin. Concert performances of Telemann's Orpheus took him to Antwerp, Amsterdam, Cologne, and Brussels.
Further engagements took him to, among others, Oper Leipzig (St. John Passion in staged form), the National Theatre Mannheim (Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno), Oper Bonn (Akhnaten , La Calisto), the Handel Festival Halle (Sosarme , Arminio), the Braunschweig State Theatre (Saul), as well as the St. Gallen Theatre and the Ulm Theatre (Written on Skin).
In the concert field, he has worked with, among others, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Academy for Ancient Music Berlin, the Collegium 1704, the RIAS Chamber Choir, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hamburg City Music Ensemble, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig His performances led him to Bachfest Leipzig He has performed at the Ansbach Bach Week, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Festival de Fontainebleau, and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. His Canadian debut was with Bach's Christmas Oratorio , and his North American debut with Handel's Messiah in Seattle. He has recorded CDs with the Stuttgart Bach Academy. His first solo album, Clear and Cloudy, featuring works by Purcell, Hume, and Dowland, was released in 2017.
Benno Schachtner was born in Illertissen, Bavaria, in 1984. As a boy soprano and soloist with the "Ulmer Spatzen" (Ulm Sparrows) choir, he toured Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Japan. Early on, he won multiple prizes at the "Jugend musiziert " (Youth Makes Music) competition (piano, duo, and voice). From 2004 to 2009, he studied church music with a focus on organ at the Detmold University of Music under Professor Gerhard Weinberger, followed by voice studies with Professor Heiner Eckels. From 2010, he continued his studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in the class of Professor Ulrich Messthaler.
He was the first countertenor in the history of the International Bach Competition in Leipzig to be awarded both the Bach Prize and the Orchestra Prize. As early as 2010, critics named him "North Rhine-Westphalia's best young singer." Since the summer semester of 2020, he has been a professor at the Bremen University of the Arts.
2026/27
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