The baritone Wolfgang Holzmair was born in Vocklabruck in Austria and studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts with Hilde Rossel-Majdan and Erik Werba. Particularly noted for his intelligent and committed performances of Lieder, Wolfgang Holzmair performs in recital throughout the world. In 2003/2004 he appeared, inter alia, in London, Lisbon, New York, Ottawa, Graz, Vienna, and at the Risor and Bregenz festivals. 2004/5 included recitals in New York, Washington, Dublin, London, Vienna and at the Bath Festival (England), Menuhin Festival (Switzerland) and Carinthian Summer Festival (Austria), and in 2005/6 Lisbon, London, New York, Washington, Strasbourg amongst others. Pianists he works with regularly include Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner, Russell Ryan, Roger Vignoles and Gerard Wyss.
Wolfgang Holzmair is also active in the opera world. He appeared as Pelleas at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees under Haitink, as Enrico in Haydn’s Isola disabitata in Lyon under Holliger, as the Count in Capriccio in Cagliari under Frühbeck de Burgos, and Speaker of the Temple in Die Zauberflöte at Opera Bastille. In addition to the title rôle in a new Casanova opera composed for the Mehuhin Festival Gstaad by Daniel Schnyder, Wolfgang Holzmair’s rôles are to include Papageno in Dallas, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier in Seattle, and Don Alfonso in Lyon under William Christie. Equally in demand on the concert platform, he has sung with leading European and American orchestras, such as the Israel Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Cleveland and Concertgebouw Orchestras, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, among others, under eminent conductors including Blomstedt, Boulez, Chailly, von Dohnany, Frühbeck de Burgos, Haitink, Harnoncourt, Norrington, and Ozawa.
In 2003/2004 he sang Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Minnesota Orchestra under Kreizberg, orchestrated Schubert songs with the Orchestra of St Luke’s at Carnegie Hall under Norrington, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the Vienna Festival. Other appearances include engagements with the Irish Chamber Orchestra under McGegan, the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin at the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt and in Berlin, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under Kreizberg, and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Janovsky.
Since 1998 he has taught Lied and oratorio at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and given masterclasses in Europe and North America.