German-born baritone Christian Gerhaher is widely acknowledged as among the finest singers performing today. His exemplary song interpretations with Gerold Huber and James Cheung have set new standards for the German Lied and their recordings have repeatedly won prizes — among them The Gramophone Classical Music Award 2015. He can be heard on the stages of major international recital centres, among them Carnegie Halle New York, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonie. He is a frequent guest in the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein in Vienna as well as in the Wigmore Hall in London; and a regular guest at the Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals as well as the Salzburg Festival.

Besides his principal activity giving concerts and recitals, Christian Gerhaher is also a highly sought-after performer on the opera stage and has received numerous prizes for his work in music drama, among the Laurence Olivier Award and the theatre prize Der Faust. Under Riccardo Muti, he sang Papageno in a production of The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival, and his roles range from Don Giovanni to Alban Berg’s Wozzeck (for the Zurich Opera House). In June 2017 he will appear as Wolfram von Eschenbach in the Bavarian State Opera’s new production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser conducted by Kirill Petrenko. His partnerships with conductors include some of the most distinguished names of the last thirty years, among them Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt, Mariss Jansons, Bernard Haitink and Christian Thielemann. He records exclusively for Sony Music.

Pianist James Cheung studied with Tatiana Sarkissova at the Royal Academy of Music and then at the Moscow Conservatoire with Alexander Mndojants. A scholar at the Britten-Pears programme, IMS Prussia Cove and the European Academy of Music, Provence, he appears regularly at such festivals as Aldeburgh, the City of London, and Aix-en-Provence. He is also Visiting Artist at the University of Oxford. As a song accompanist James has worked with some of the most distinguished artists today, and most notably with Christian Gerhaher, with whom he is partnered in this concert.