Baritone Benjamin Appl is celebrated for a voice that is described as belonging to “the last of the old great masters of song,” showcasing “an almost infinite range of colours,” according to the Suddeutsche Zeitung. His performances are noted for being delivered with wit, intelligence, and sophistication, as highlighted by Gramophone magazine. A former BBC New Generation Artist from 2014 to 2016, he is also recognized as a Wigmore Hall Emerging Artist and an ECHO Rising Star for 2015-16. In 2016, he received the Gramophone Award for Young Artist of the Year. That same year, he signed exclusively with Sony Classical and has since embarked on a multi-album deal with Alpha Classics, releasing his debut album, Winterreise, in February 2021 to widespread critical acclaim.
Appl’s musical journey began as a young chorister at the renowned Regensburger Domspatzen. He later continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Under the mentorship of the legendary artist Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Appl describes their partnership as an “invaluable and hugely formative influence.” He regards Fischer-Dieskau as an inspiration, noting that he was always searching for a deeper understanding of music and life. Appl highlights him as a role model for thriving as an artist, emphasizing the importance of not just delivering performances but creating something new each time.
An established recitalist, Appl has performed at prestigious festivals such as Ravinia, Rheingau, Schleswig Holstein, Edinburgh, Heidelberg Frühling, and the Oxford International festivals, as well as the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and the KlavierFestival Ruhr. He has graced major concert venues, including the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Wigmore Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Berlin and Vienna, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Musée de Louvre in Paris, and the Shanghai Symphony’s Music in the Summer Air Festival.
In equal demand as a soloist on the world’s most prestigious stages, Appl’s recent collaborators include renowned orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Klaus Mäkelä, Munich Philharmonic with Andrew Manze, and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with Ton Koopman. He has also worked with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andreas Reize, NHK Symphony Orchestra with Paavo Järvi, Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Staatskapelle Dresden with Christian Thielemann, Philharmonia conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, Seattle Symphony with Thomas Dausgaard, Vienna Symphony with Karina Canellakis, and many others.
Some of Appl’s recent recital debuts include prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Performances, Dallas Opera, the Boston Celebrity Series, New York’s Park Avenue Armory (where he performed all three Schubert song cycles), Sydney Opera House, Mozarteum Salzburg, and Festival St. Denis. He has also presented Winterreise three times at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. A creative and innovative programmer, Benjamin actively seeks diverse and enriching onstage partnerships, collaborating with pianists like James Baillieu, David Fray, Alice Sara Ott, Arthur and Lucas Jussen, and Jorge Viladoms, as well as the Armida String Quartet, accordionists Martynas Levickis and Ksenija Sidorova, and lutenist Thomas Dunford.
Recent operatic highlights for Appl include his role and house debut as Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos at Liceu in Barcelona, as well as his performance as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte at Opéra de Rouen. He also made his role debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with the Classical Opera Company, a role he revisited last season at Mozartfest Würzburg. In the 2024/25 season, Appl looks forward to making his operatic house debut at Hamburg State Opera as Papageno. He will also forge artistic partnerships in concert with the Oslo Philharmonic under Klaus Mäkelä, NFM Wroclaw, Le Concert Spirituel with Hervé Niquet, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, where he will perform as a baritone soloist and make his European conducting debut.
A revered interpreter of early music, Benjamin Appl regularly collaborates with esteemed groups such as Les Talens Lyriques, the Gabetta Ensemble, B’Rock, Ensemble Masques, and the Berliner Barocksolisten. He is also comfortable in the realm of new music, having premiered compositions by notable composers including Nico Muhly, David Lang, and Matthias Pintscher. Furthermore, he has developed a significant long-term partnership with composer György Kurtág.
Appl’s growing discography includes his latest album for Alpha Classics, titled “The Christmas Album,” which will be released in Winter 2024. This album features a beautiful selection of European Christmas songs recorded with his former boys’ choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen, and his regular artistic partner, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester. His recent albums also include Forbidden Fruit, which BBC Music magazine describes as having “irresistible” programming, an album of orchestrated Schubert Lieder with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, and a collection of Hans Sommer Orchestral Songs with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Additionally, he has recorded Schumann duets with Ann Murray (DBE), accompanied by Malcolm Martineau, and a live recording of Schubert lieder with Graham Johnson for the Wigmore Hall Live label. His first solo album for Sony Classical, Heimat, was Gramophone nominated and won the prestigious Prix Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau for Best Lieder Singer at the 2017-18 Académie du Disque Lyrique Orphées d’Or. Other recent recordings include an album of Bach with Concerto Köln and Sibelius’s Kullervo with the BBC Scottish Symphony and Thomas Dausgaard for Hyperion Records.
Outside the concert hall, Appl recently appeared in a new realization of Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise, filmed in the Swiss Alps. Commissioned by the BBC and Swiss television station SRF and directed by John Bridcut, the film offers a unique and insightful interpretation of Schubert’s epic work and was broadcast on BBC4 in 2022. Additionally, he presented a series of programs for BBC Radio 3 titled “A Singer’s World” and starred in the film Breaking Music, which celebrates both Argentinian tango and German Lied traditions, breaking down traditional boundaries between musical genres.