Matthias Goerne (born 31 March 1967) is a German baritone. He has performed and recorded extensively, both on the opera stage and in Lieder settings. Goerne has been referred to as "Today's leading interpreter of German art songs" by the Chicago Tribune and as "one of the greatest singers performing today" by the Boston Globe. Prominent opera stages on which Goerne has appeared include the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro Real, Madrid; Paris National Opera; Vienna State Opera; and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. His carefully chosen roles range from Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Amfortas (Parsifal), Kurwenal (Tristan) and Orest (Electra) right up to the title roles in Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, Hindemith's Mathis der Maler and Reimann's Lear. In Lieder settings, he has worked with many pre-eminent pianists, including Alfred Brendel, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniil Trifonov and Seong-Jin Cho. Biography Early life and education Goerne was born in Weimar. He grew up in a musical environment, his father being a dramaturgist and director of several acting theaters in Dresden. His first instrument was the cello, but he soon switched to singing. At the age of 9 he determined that he wanted to become a professional singer. He sang in the children's choirs of several of his father's theater productions, including Carmen and La Bohème. From the age of 18 to 22 he studied voice in Leipzig under . He would later refer to Beyer as being his most important teacher, and as the one who enabled him to start winning competitions. In 1989, he won second prize in the Robert Schumann Competition and first prizes in the Salomon-Lindberg and Hugo Wolf competitions. Two years into his studies, he won a singing competition in West Berlin. The head of the jury, composer and pianist Aribert Reimann, introduced him to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whom Goerne considered his idol and the greatest artist he knew. He was to receive singing lessons from Fischer-Dieskau for 3 years. Next, he studied with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf for two and a half to three years. Career 1990s Goerne made his professional début in Leipzig in 1990 after being invited by Kurt Masur to sing in Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Goerne made his Salzburg Festival début in 1997 (Papageno). 2000s From 2001 through 2005, Matthias Goerne taught as an honorary professor of song interpretation at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf. In 2001, he was appointed an