Soloist

Marcel Brunner

The bass-baritone Marcel Brunner, who was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK prize in 2026, is in high demand internationally both on the opera stage and as a concert performer.

From 2018 to 2024, he was a member of the ensemble at the National Theatre in Mannheim, where he appeared in roles including Figaro, Leporello, Papageno, Dulcamara, Escamillo and Duke Bluebeard, as well as Alberich and Gunther in »Der Ring an einem Abend«. Marcel Brunner has been working as a freelance singer since September 2024.

Guest engagements have taken him to numerous renowned opera houses both at home and abroad, including the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Oper Leipzig, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, the Aalto Theater in Essen, Oper Dortmund, Theater Bonn, Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck, the Ständetheater in Prague, the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp and Ghent. He has also made guest appearances at the Berlin Philharmonic’s Easter Festival in Baden-Baden.

As a concert soloist, Marcel Brunner has performed at venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, DeSingel in Antwerp and the Pfalzbau in Ludwigshafen, as well as at the Ghent Festival in Sint-Baafs. His repertoire includes major bass and baritone roles in the concert repertoire, amongst them Bach’s Passions and Mass in B minor, Mendelssohn’s »Elias«, Brahms’ »Ein deutsches Requiem«, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Verdi’s »Messa da Requiem« and Haydn’s »Die Schöpfung«.

In opera and concert performances, he has worked with conductors such as Alexander Soddy, Axel Kober, Alejo Peréz, Duncan Ward, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Christoph Gedschold, Hans-Christoph Rademann and Kaspar Zehnder, as well as with directors such as Calixto Bieito, Barbora Horáková, Ersan Mondtag, Jona Kim, Nigel Lowery, Tatjana Gürbaca, Ivo van Hove, Lorenzo Fioroni and Jens Daniel Herzog.

In September 2025, his debut album REMEMBRANCE was released on the renowned label hänssler CLASSIC. The recording was highly praised by the specialist press, nominated for a German Record Critics’ Award and shortlisted in two categories for the OPUS KLASSIK 2026.

Marcel Brunner was born in Bad Mergentheim in the Tauber-Franconia region and studied singing at the Karlsruhe University of Music under Christiane Libor.