Stephan Loges

The German bass-baritone Stephan Loges (LOW-gus) came on the scene with major prize wins in the late 1990s and has gone on to a significant concert and recording career in Germany, Britain (where he was partly trained), and the U.S. Loges specializes in core, German Romantic song repertory, but has also performed opera and major choral works. He is one of a relatively small number of German singers who have mastered singing in English. Loges was born in Dresden, then in East Germany, in 1972. His musical training began in a boys’ choir, the Dresdner Kreuzchor, but he did not actually take voice lessons until he was 19. He studied at the Hochschule der Künste (now the Universität der Künste, University of the Arts) in newly reunited Berlin, enrolling in 1992, and went on to London and the Guildhall School of Music three years later, studying with Rudolf Piernay and graduating in 1999. His career began while he was a student there, with appearances in Britten’s Albert Herring and Fauré’s Pénélope, among other productions. He also won prizes in both Britain and the U.S., including the Walker Fund Debut prize, which brought with it a concert booking at New York’s 92nd Street Y. In Britain he won the 1999 Wigmore Hall Song Competition and performed Schumann’s Liederkreis at that venue. He has specialized in the songs of Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, and Mendelssohn, but his repertory extends forward into the 20th century with songs by Duparc, Britten, and Poulenc. Loges has sung major choral works, including cantatas by Bach as part of conductor John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach 2000 series and the Bach St. Matthew Passion at the BBC Proms in 2002, under conductor Trevor Pinnock. He has appeared in operas both in Britain and on the European continent, including roles as Golaud in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande with the English Touring Opera. Loges has issued several recordings, including a recital of songs by Schumann, Brahms, and Robert Franz on the Athene label in 2005, and as soloist in the contemporary oratorio Fields of the Fallen, by Ronald Corp, in 2016. He was signed to Signum Classics and released the recital Nature’s Solace, featuring songs by Schumann, Brahms, and Yrjö Kilpinen in 2018. ~ James Manheim