Born 1956 in Limburg, Germany, Christoph Prégardien began his musical education as a choirboy. He then studied singing with Martin Gründler and Karlheinz Jarius in Frankfurt, Carla Castellani in Milan, Alois Treml in Stuttgart and attended Hartmut Höll's lieder-class.

Widely regarded as among the foremost lyric tenors, Christoph Prégardien frequently collaborates with conductors such as Barenboim, Chailly, Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Luisi, Metzmacher, Nagano, Sawallisch and Thielemann. His repertory spans a wide range from the great Baroque, Classical and Romantic Oratorios to 20th-century works by Britten, Killmayer, Rihm, Stravinsky. 

Recognized as an eminent recitalist, Christoph Prégardien is regularly welcomed at the major recitals venues of Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Zurich, Vienna, Barcelona and Geneva, as well as during his concert tours throughout Italy, Japan and North America. A longstanding collaboration unites him with his favourite piano partners Michael Gees and Andreas Staier.


Soloist of choice for renowned orchestras, he performed with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, London Philharmonia, Staatskapelle Dresden, Philharmonie de Radio France and the Boston and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras.

An important part of his repertory has been recorded by major labels such as BMG, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Sony, Erato and Teldec. He is represented on more than a hundred and twenty titles, including nearly all of his active repertoire.

His recordings of German Romantic Lied repertory have been highly acclaimed by the public and press and have received international awards including the prestigious Orphée d’Or of the Académie du Disque Lyrique-Prix Georg Solti, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Award, Cannes Classical Award and Diapason d’Or.

A new recording (with pianist Michael Gees) of works by Robert Schumann (Liederkreis Op. 39) and Hugo Wolf with poems by Eichendorff has been released in June 2006 (Hänssler-Classics). A further cd with songs by Gustav Mahler (also with pianist Michael Gees) is in preparation.


As an opera singer, Christoph Prégardien has made stage appearences in major European houses, performing leading roles as Tamino (Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Seviglia), Fenton (Falstaff) and Monteverdi's Ulisse.
In May/June 2005, Christoph Prégardien sang the leading part in Mozart’s “La Clemenza diTito” at the Paris National Opera conducted by Sylvain Cambreling. There will be a revival in September 2006. A DVD of this production has been released by Opus Arte.

An important aspect in the musical life of Christoph Prégardien is his intensive and varied educational work. From 2000 to 2005, Christoph Prégardien was in charge of a vocal class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich. Since the autumn of 2004, he is a professor at the Musikhochschule Köln.

In a new combination of DVD and book, released in the series “Schott Master Class”, he presents for the first time questions of singing technique and interpretation in word and picture. Film examples accompagny him during his lessons with master
class students.