Biography

German tenor Werner Güra was born in Munich and received his musical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Following appearances at the opera houses of Frankfurt and Basel, he joined the ensemble of the Semperoper Dresden in 1995. He subsequently appeared in various productions at Berlin State Opera, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Opéra de Lille, La Monnaie in Brussels, Opéra National de Paris, the Innsbruck Festival for Early Music, and in Baden-Baden. In 2014 he appeared in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Opera Zurich. He has worked with many orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, BBC Symphony, the Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, and the German, Dutch, Spanish, and Danish radio orchestras. 

Mr. Güra has made several lieder recordings for the Harmonia Mundi label, including Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Liederkreis, Opus 39, and Wolf’s Mörike Lieder, all with pianist Jan Schultsz;  a disc of songs by Clara and Robert Schumann and Brahms, Schubert’s Schwanengesang and Winterreise, and lieder of Mozart, all with Christoph Berner. For his recording of Winterreise Mr. Güra received the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award in 2011. For his latest Schubert CD, Willkommen und Abschied, he was awarded the German ECHO Klassik prize in 2012. Werner Güra has taught at the Music Academy Zurich since 2009. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

(September 2015)