Hanno Müller-Brachmann

Biography

Bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann grew up in South Baden and received his early musical training with the Knabenkantorei Basel. He studied with Ingeborg Most in Freiburg, Rudolf Piernay in Mannheim, and attended Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s Lied class in Berlin. While still a student, Daniel Barenboim invited him to join the ensemble at the Berlin State Opera. There, Müller-Brachmann portrayed major Mozart roles, as well as Kaspar (Der Freischütz«), Amfortas (Parsifal), Escamillo (Carmen), and Banquo (Macbeth), among others. He also took part in world premieres, including Elliott Cartner’s What Next? and Pascal Dusapin’s Faustus, the Last Night. He worked with renowned conductors like Michael Gielen, Pierre Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle, and Philippe Jordan during his time in Berlin. Guest engagements took him to prestigious venues such as the state operas of Hamburg, Vienna, and Munich, as well to San Francisco. A highlight was his recording of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte under Claudio Abbado, which won the Gramophone Award for Best Opera Recording. He also recently performed in Cleveland under Franz Welser-Möst as Golaud in Debussy‘s Pelléas et Mélisande. As a concert singer, he has collaborated with conductors such as Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, and Kirill Pertrenko. A long-standing partnership with Bernard Haitink saw him perform with leading orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 2017, he sang the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Requiem-Strophen with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the 2024/25 season, upcoming highlights include performances in Madrid, Milan, and as Fafner in Wagner’s Siegfried under Kent Nagano. His recent recordings include the Brahms Songbook, Vol. 2 and Auf jenen Höh’n, featuring Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder. Hanno Müller-Brachmann is a professor at the Karlsruhe University of Music and passionately advocates for music education, currently serving as the chair of the Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe choir.

Updated 3/2025