Born in Frankfurt in 1984, Julian Prégardien received his first musical training as a member of the choirs of Limburg Cathedral. After having studied voice in Freiburg and at the Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival Academy, he was a member of the soloist ensemble of Frankfurt Opera from 2009 to 2013. In parallel, he pursued an international solo career, particularly in collaboration with conductors specializing in historical performance practice.

Prégardien is now one of the most outstanding young vocalists on the international scene. In recent years he gave his début at Aix-en-Provence Festival, at Hamburg State Opera, at Munich State Opera, and at Paris Opéra Comique. Salzburg Festival has been regularly inviting him for concert appearances since 2015; now he will give his first stage performance in Salzburg in 2018 as Narraboth in Richard Strauss’s Salome, staged by Romeo Castellucci, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.

Kent Nagano regularly invites Prégardien to perform with the two orchestras of which he is Music Director: Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Hamburg State Opera. Sharing the stage with his father Christoph Prégardien, Julian also sang the title role in a concert performance of Mozart’s Idomeneo with the ensemble Concerto Köln, likewise with Nagano conducting.

Prégardien is one of the most renowned and sought-after Evangelists in the Passions of J. S. Bach; in early 2019, he will make his second CD recording of the St Matthew Passion (with Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki). In November 2018 he will teach a master class on the subject of the St John Passion in collaboration with McGill University, the Montreal Bach Festival, the Université de Montréal, and the Conservatoire de Musique.

In his career, Julian Prégardien lays particular emphasis on Lied recitals along with chamber music projects. In the course of the 2018/2019 season, Prégardien will perform Lied recitals with pianists such as Kristian Bezuidenhout, Martin Helmchen, Eric le Sage, and Lars Vogt.

Prégardien has launched the media platform P.RHÉI, a multimedia editorial project that throws new light on the performance history and practice of Schubert’s Winterreise. The project includes a recording of Hans Zender’s orchestral version of Winterreise, to be released on the Alpha Classics label in 2018.

In November 2017, Julian Prégardien was appointed Professor of Voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. He is a member of the Schumann Network and a patron of Canto elementar, a programme that actively supports children’s singing activities in Kindergärten.