BIOGRAPHY
Forumopera; Charles Siegel (November 2023)
Sophistication and youthfulness - nothing seems impossible to him. The voice is perhaps the most beautiful of all his qualities. It has depth, suppleness, projection, balance, brilliance, a sex appeal like Don Giovanni; something conquering, chivalrous, cavalier.
Samuel Hasselhorn, born in Göttingen in 1990, is now one of the most influential performers in his field. After studying in Hanover and Paris and winning major prizes – most notably the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2018 – he has established himself internationally on the opera stage as well as in the field of song and concert performance.
As an opera singer, Hasselhorn was initially a member of the ensemble at the Vienna State Opera and then at the Nuremberg Opera. Today, he regularly performs at major opera houses such as the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, the Frankfurt Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and La Scala in Milan. In the 2025/26 season, he will make his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in a new production of Mozart's “Le nozze di Figaro” as Conte Almaviva and at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival as Heerrufer (Lohengrin) under the baton of Joana Mallwitz. He will return to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden under the baton of Christian Thielemann as Barbier Schneidebart in “Die schweigsame Frau“, as well as for the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher's “Das kalte Herz“ and concerts featuring Brahms' Requiem, which he will also sing in a staged production at the Opéra Rouen.
Other performed roles include the title roles in Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Pelléas et Mélisande, Mathis der Maler, and Il barbiere di Siviglia, as well as Wolfram von Eschenbach (Tannhäuser), Gabriel von Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Fritz/Frank (Die tote Stadt), Guglielmo (Cosí fan tutte), Belcore (L'elisir d'amore), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Ford (Falstaff). Guest engagements have taken him to opera houses in Paris (Opéra Bastille), Brussels (La Monnaie), Florence (Maggio Musicale), Palermo, Toulouse, Darmstadt, Caen, Erfurt, Rouen, and the Theater an der Wien, where he worked with the leading conductors of our time: Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, Joana Mallwitz, Thomas Guggeis, Nathalie Stutzmann, Alain Altinoglu, Mark Minkowksi, Adam Fischer, Sebastian Weigle, Philippe Herreweghe, Laurence Equilbey, and Ivor Bolton.
Alongside his opera career, Hasselhorn is also dedicated to singing Lieder. One of his main projects is the “Schubert 200” series, where Hasselhorn and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz are recording songs by Franz Schubert for Harmonia Mundi until 2028, each of which was written exactly 200 years ago. The first two albums, “Die schöne Müllerin” and “Licht und Schatten”, were awarded the Diapason d'or de l'année and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics' Award). His other musical partners include Helmut Deutsch, Malcolm Martineau, Philippe Cassard, Joseph Breinl, Joseph Middleton, and Julius Drake.
He is also making his mark in the field of orchestral song: in the summer of 2024, his orchestral album “Urlicht – Songs of Death and Resurrection” was released, recorded with the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra under Łukasz Borowicz and awarded at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) as both Best Vocal Album and Recording of the Year.
Concerts and recitals will take Hasselhorn to Wigmore Hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Schubertiade in Hohenems, the Opéra Rouen, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Salle Bourgie in Montréal, among other venues, in the coming season.
He also sang concerts and recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York, the philharmonic halls in Cologne, Berlin, Paris, Munich, Luxembourg, and Essen, the concert halls in Vienna, Dortmund, and Freiburg, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg, Notre Dame de Paris, the Vienna Musikverein, Bozar and Flagey in Brussels, the Tonhalle in Zurich, MüPa Budapest, the Auditori and Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, and many other venues. Future projects include his opera debut at the Salzburg Festival.
Samuel Hasselhorn is the winner of the 2018 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, the 2017 “Das Lied” competition in Heidelberg, the YCA Young Concert Artists Audition 2014 in New York, the International Schubert Competition in Dortmund 2013, and is a prize winner of the Hugo Wolf Competition 2016 in Stuttgart, the Wigmore Hall Song Competition 2015 in London, and the Nadie et Lili Boulanger Competition 2013 in Paris.
Teaching and giving masterclasses are becoming increasingly important in Hasselhorn's work. He teaches every year at the Steans Music Institute of the Ravinia Festival (Chicago) and has given masterclasses at the conservatories and music academies in Hanover, Pisa, Paris, and Tel Aviv.
Critics praise not only the clarity and warmth of his voice, but also his intense interpretation of lyrics and his ability to translate musical dramas into subtle psychological nuances. With a combination of technical brilliance, stylistic breadth, and a pronounced artistic curiosity, Samuel Hasselhorn has secured a firm place for himself on international stages. His career combines the classical heritage of the great baritones with a fresh, modern interpretive approach—a voice that is playing a decisive role in shaping contemporary opera and lieder singing.