The German bass, Matthias Gerchen, had worked as a physician, when he started studies in singing with Prof. Carl-Heinz Müller in Hannover. Studies with Christoph Stephinger and - for many years - with Margreet
Honig, Amsterdam, followed. These were completed by master-classes with Ingrid Bjoner, Jessica Cash, Elio Battaglia and Josef Metternich.
With his wide-ranged repertoire from renaissance to modern music, Matthias Gerchen is a much sought-after concert performer. On the opera stage, he performed in works by Cavalli, George Frideric Handel, Mozart and Rossini. Recently, he performed the title role in Ulysse by Reinhard Keiser at Braunschweig State Theater. He may also be heard as a Lied interpreter. His interest lies with the late Romantic period in particular. He has been invited to numerous international festivals, such as Brügge, Innsbruck, Melbourne, Prague, and Utrecht, and has worked with conductors as Martin Gester, Eduardo Lopez Banzo and Konrad Junghänel. He has recorded works by J.S. Bach, Biber, Monteverdi, Johannes Brahms, Dvorák and Strauss for various European radio stations and for CD's.
Matthias Gerchen teaches at Hanover and Bremen and at the Bremen University for the Arts. From 1997 to 2001 he was a visiting professor at Escola das Artes in Porto/Portugal. |