Johannes Chum

Biography

The Austrian tenor Johannes Chum received his first musical education as a soloist of the Wiener Sängerknaben. His career as an opera singer started in 1994 with the part of Lysander (Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream) in St. Pölten, followed by Jaquino (Beethoven: Fidelio), Mozart’s Tito (La clemenza di Tito) and Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) what he did with the Stadttheater Klagenfurt.
He made his debut at the Wiener Musikverein in 1995 when he sang Weill’s Die sieben Todsünden under Ingo Metzmacher. At the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, Austria, Johannes Chum performed Haydn’s Germando (Isola disabitata) and Rinaldo (Armida), in Salzburg he could be heard as Mozart’s Arbace (Mozart: Idomeneo) and Tamino (Die Zauberflöte, stage dir. Harry Kupfer) at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. Chum sang the parts of Pastore and Spiritus in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Opéra de la Monnaie in Paris and New York under René Jacobs. In Frankfurt he could be heard as Nerone (Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea) and Don Ottavio (Mozart: Don Giovanni). He regularly sings at the Komische Oper Berlin where he already did Roméo (Gounod: Roméo et Juliette), Mozart’s Tamino, Titus and Ferrando (Così fan tutte). Other highlights include Don Ottavio in Frankfurt, Michel in Martinů’s Julietta with the Bregenz Festival, Jüngling (Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten) at the Opéra National de Paris, a European tour with concert performances of Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini under the baton of Sir Roger Norrington.
Chum performed Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht under Philippe Herreweghe in Gent, Aufidio (Mozart: Lucio Silla) under Adam Fischer in Amsterdam, L’incoronazione di Poppea in Frankfurt, Strawinsky’s Oedipus Rex in Prague. As an opera- as well as a concert-singer, Johannes Chum has worked with numerous conductors, such as Sylvain Cambreling, Riccardo Chailly, Dennis Russell Davies, Leopold Hager, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Richard Hickox, René Jacobs, Fabio Luisi, Sir Charles Mackerras, Ingo Metzmacher, and Sir Roger Norrington.

Update: 2007