Born in Erfurt in 1973, Stephan Genz is an internationally recognized German baritone, particularly known for his excellency in the Lied repertoire. After receiving his first musical training as a chorister of the Thomanerchor in Leipzig, he followed his vocal studies with Hans-Joachim Beyer at the conservatory of Leipzig, Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll at the conservatory of Karlsruhe and later, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. He came to prominence by winning prestigious competitions such as the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Hamburg (1994) and the International Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart (1994). In 1998, Stephan Genz was awarded the “Brahms-Preis” of Schleswig- Holstein and in 2000, the Belgium music critics elected him “Young Artist of the Year”. Since then, he appeared in leading opera houses, including the Berlin Staatsoper, Hamburg Staatsoper, Paris (Bastille, Theatre des Champs- Elysees, Chatelet), Teatro alla Scala Milano, Grand Theatre de Genève, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Bolshoi Moscow, Strasbourg, Cologne and the Festivals of Aix-en-Provence and Baden- Baden. He worked with conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Gerd Albrecht, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas Hengelbrock, Gustav Kuhn, Sigiswald Kuijken, Rene Jacobs, Jesus Lopez-Coboz, Fabio Luisi, Georges Pretre, Bruno Bartoletti, Kent Nagano, Jeffrey Tate, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Masur, Eliahu Inbal, Mario Venzago, Lothar Zagrosek, Edo de Waart, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.