Brenden Gunnell

Tenor

Biography

The much sought-after Heldentenor Brenden Gunnell is renowned in opera and in concert. Born in the USA, he has gained an international reputation for his clarion and carefully nuanced tone, effortless upper tessitura, clear articulation, and intense acting style.

Core roles of his opera repertoire include the title roles in Peter Grimes, Lohengrin, Parsifal, Oedipus Rex and Der Zwerg as well as Siegmund in Die Walkure, Laça in Jenufa, the Prince in Rusalka, Sergei in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Erik in Der Fliegende Hollander. Brenden Gunnell is an ensemble member of Oper Leipzig from the 2022/2023 season onwards, where he makes his debut as Herodes in Salome, and will reprise the title role in a new production of Peter Grimes.

On the concert stage he is particularly noted for Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, which he debuted with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Jeffrey Tate at Laeiszhalle Hamburg, and has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at King’s College Cambridge, with Dortmund Philharmoniker, and at Bremen Glocke, Domkirke Oslo, as well as Rheingau Musik Festival at Kloster Eberbach. Further core works include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Symphony no. 9, Britten’s War Requiem and his works for tenor and chamber orchestra, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Das Klagende Lied and Symphony No. 8 (performed with the Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Riccardo Chailly; at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, conducted by Fabio Luisi; and recorded with the Dortmund Philharmonic for Dreyer Gaido, conducted by Gabriel Feltz), Frank Martin’s Golgotha, Franz Schmidt’s Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.

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