Robin Tritschler

Robin Tritschler has parlayed his designation as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist in 2012 into a growing international career. He has recorded for such major labels as Hyperion and Signum Classics. Tritschler was born in Ireland's County Wicklow. He sang as a child, gave it up, and then was active during his teenage years as a folksinger. Then he decided to apply himself fully to music and studied music in Dublin, graduating from the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He has said that he is a tenor from Ireland but does not consider himself an "Irish tenor" and has avoided singing the common run of Irish popular songs in recital. Tritschler moved on to the Royal Academy of Music in London, and indeed much of his performing career has taken place within the U.K.; his primary residence on the operatic stage is at the Welsh National Opera, where he has performed leading tenor roles by Mozart, Donizetti, Richard Strauss, and others. Tritschler first attracted international attention with a series of prizes in the 2000s decade, including the Ulster Bank Music Foundation Bursary, the Abigail Dodds Lieder Prize, and the Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards in 2006, following that up with a second prize at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in 2007. Those prizes launched a vigorous recital career for Tritschler, who has performed to the accompaniment of Graham Johnson, Simon Lepper, Malcolm Martineau, and Roger Vignoles. He has also made appearances as a soloist in choral music, especially that of Bach, and in orchestral concerts, earning nationwide recognition as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. During his term, which lasted until 2014, he made his debut at the Royal Opera as the Idiot in Alban Berg's Wozzeck. Tritschler's early recording career was marked by daring choices of unusual repertory. His 2011 Pilfink debut, The Renaissance Album, showcased songs by Philip Rosseter and Dowland, hardly typical fare for a young tenor on the rise. The year 2014 brought No Exceptions, No Exemptions, a collection of World War I songs that included German songs as well as British ones. In 2017, he released an album of lieder by the little-known composer Robert Franz. Tritschler has appeared with groups as diverse as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian and North German Radio Symphony Orchestras, and Pygmalion. He sang in the BBC Proms performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sancta Civitas. He has also been busy in opera, appearing in Garsington Opera's production of Mozart's Così fan tutte. In 2019, he released the recital Song's First Cycle on the Signum Classics label, with Martineau as accompanist, and the following year, he was heard on the ninth volume of Hyperion's complete Songs of Brahms cycle. In 2022, Tritschler returned with a recording of songs by composer William Busch on the Lyrita label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi