Performance Year: 2015, 2017
The English-German tenor Rufus Müller was acclaimed by the New York Times following a performance in Carnegie Hall as “easily the best tenor I have heard in a live Messiah.” He is a leading Evangelist in Bach’s Passions and his unique dramatic interpretation of this role has confirmed his status as one of the world’s most sought-after performers. He gave the world premiere of Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed production of the St. Matthew Passion, which he also recorded for Unitel and broadcast on BBC TV; he has repeated his performance in three revivals of the production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.
In demand for oratorio and opera, Rufus Müller has worked with many leading conductors in the period-instrument and modern-instrument fields. He has given solo recitals in Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Concert Hall in London as well as for BBC Radio, and in Munich, Tokyo, Barcelona, Madrid, Utrecht, Paris, Salzburg and New York. He has a regular partnership with the pianist Maria João Pires, with whom he has performed notably in a three-concert Schubertiade in Spain and London’s Wigmore Hall.
Recordings include Bach’s St. John Passion and Bach cantatas with John Elliot Gardiner for DG Archiv, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia with Roger Norrington for EMI, Dowland’s First Book of Airs with lutenist Christopher Wilson for ASV, Haydn’s O Tuneful Voice and songs by Benda with soprano Emma Kirkby and three recordings of 19th-century songs with Invocation, all for Hyperion, Telemann’s Admiralitätsmusik on CPO, Telemann solo cantatas on Capriccio, Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen with the New York Festival of Song on New World Records, songs by Franz Lachner with Christoph Hammer on Oehms Classics, Haydn’s Creation with Oxford Philomusica with Edward HIgginbottom, and Messiah with the National Cathedral, Washington D.C. and Michael McCarthy.
Recent recital engagements include Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin with Matan Porat in Portugal, Winterreise with Maria Jõao Pires in Lisbon and on tour in Spain, and Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Liederkreis with fortepianist Christoph Hammer in Germany.
Rufus Müller was born in Kent, England and was a choral scholar at New College, Oxford. He is at present studying in New York with Thomas LoMonaco. In 1985 he won first prize in the English Song Award in Brighton, and in 1999 was a prize winner in the Oratorio Society of New York Singing Competition. He is an assistant professor of music at Bard College, New York.
