Baritone Bernd Valentin has appeared as both an ensemble member and guest artist at leading opera houses across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, including the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Vienna Volksoper. Alongside his extensive operatic and concert career, he is a committed recitalist and has premiered works by contemporary composers. He is Professor of Voice at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and regularly gives masterclasses in Austria, Germany and Spain.
Bernd Valentin studied singing with Claudio Nicolai and Klesie Kelly in Cologne. Early in his career, he held ensemble positions at the theatres in Kiel and Hagen, as well as at the Hanover State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Following these engagements, he worked as a freelance artist, making guest appearances in Aachen, Berlin, Bonn, Hanover, Nuremberg and Munich, as well as in Bern, Basel, Innsbruck and at the Vienna Volksoper. During this time, he significantly expanded his repertoire, performing roles such as Krenek’s Jonny, Ullmann’s Kaiser Overall, Debussy’s Pelléas, Berlioz’s Chorèbe, Bizet’s Zurga, Gluck’s Agamemnon, Braunfels’s Jakobäus, Janáček’s Förster and Prus, Puccini’s Lescaut, d’Albert’s Sebastiano and Golem, Strauss’s Mandryka, Catalani’s Gellner, Verdi’s Don Carlo and Falstaff, and Berg’s Wozzeck.
He has appeared in concert at venues including the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Frauenkirche Dresden, the Liederhalle Stuttgart and the Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich, and has been a guest at festivals throughout Europe as well as in Asia and the Americas. He has also performed in world premieres of works by Sofia Gubaidulina and Sven-David Sandström under Helmuth Rilling, and in Paul Ben-Haim’s Joram with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv.
Bernd Valentin is also a dedicated recitalist. His repertoire includes major song cycles such as Schubert’s Winterreise, Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Liederkreis, Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Des Knaben Wunderhorn, as well as works by Frank Martin, Francis Poulenc and Aribert Reimann. He has a particular interest in developing thematic recital programmes.
Recent engagements include performances as Zurga in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles in Kaiserslautern, Gellner in Catalani’s La Wally at the Vienna Volksoper, and the four villains in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Innsbruck. He has also given recitals in Italy and Germany and appeared in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem.
Bernd Valentin is Professor of Voice at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, where he leads his own class. In addition to his regular teaching commitments at the university, he regularly gives masterclasses in Austria, Germany and Spain.