Björn Bürger

After primary school, Bürger first visited the Heinrich-Böll-Schule (Integrated Comprehensive School) of his home town and changed in the middle of 2002 to the grammar high school of the Oswald-von-Nell-Breuning-Schule (Rödermark).[1] Bürger obtained there the general university entrance qualification (Abitur) in 2005 and began first a study in the faculty of spoken theatre at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. In 2007 he moved there to the department of opera singing.

Bürger, encouraged by his parents, received early piano lessons at the local free music school and taught himself how to play the guitar. His piano teacher Benjamin Schütze drew his attention to Rio Reiser and Bürger began to interpret his music playfully and vocally. In addition to his piano training, he also took singing lessons with Gottfried Kärner, the leader of the Polyhymnia pop choir in his hometown, in which Bürger also sang.[1]

Still in his school days Bürger was a singer of the band Up To Now, later an active member of the South Hessian artist group Pro-these and the theatre group MomentMal. In 2000 he performed the musical Herr Fresssack und die Bremer Stadtmusikanten at the musical project of the music school Bad Nauheim, which is based on the radio play of the same name with Ton Steine Scherben from 1973.[1] Numerous solo performances as Rio-Reiser interpreter followed. In 2003 Bürger received the cultural award of his hometown "for his artistic work in the fields of singing, theatre and piano" in 2002.[2]

From 2007 to 2013 Bürger studied opera singing at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main in the class of Hedwig Fassbender.[3] During his studies he had four engagements in productions of the Frankfurt Opera besides further solo appearances as Rio-Reiser interpreter and guest roles as opera singer. He also took part in various annual productions at his university, such as the Höchster Opernsommer in the leading role of Osmin in Mozart's Singspiel Zaide and in the leading role of King Argante at the Handel-Festspiele Karlsruhe. He also appeared in the leading role of Victor Hugo in the world premiere of Paul Leonard Schäffer's operetta Eine Kapitulation to a libretto by Richard Wagner at the Festival junger Künstler Bayreuth.[4]

In November 2012, at the age of 27, Bürger won the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin finals at the Komische Oper Berlin against eleven other young artists and won the first prize, endowed with 10,000 euros.[5]

Three months later, together with the mezzo-soprano Dorottya Láng, Bürger received the Emmerich Smola prize, one of the highest endowed prizes for young singers. After a concert with the competition finalists in the Festhalle of Landau the audience decided on the awarding of the prizes, which were associated with a concert engagement with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern.[2]

Björn Bürger in the premiere of Der Mieter, Oper Frankfurt, November 2017

Since the 2013/14 season Bürger has belonged to the permanent ensemble of the Frankfurt Opera.[3][5] In November 2017 he was able to achieve a great personal success in the title role of the world premiere of Herrmann's Der Mieter. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine he completed a vocal acting tour de force, which he mastered intensely, in many different ways most impressively.“[6]

In 2016 he debuted at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia in the lead role Figaro and the following year played “Harlekin” in Ariadne auf Naxos.[7]