21 Facts About Benjamin Appl

Benjamin Appl was born on 26 June 1982 and is a German-British lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in opera houses and concert halls, particularly known as a Lieder singer.

Benjamin Appl started training as a bank clerk at the Liga Bank in Regensburg.

Benjamin Appl then studied business administration at the University of Regensburg, graduating in 2009 with a diploma.

Benjamin Appl's diploma thesis, an empirical study of withdrawn initial public offerings, received the highest possible marks.

Benjamin Appl was awarded a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes between 2007 and 2012.

In 2009, Benjamin Appl met Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau at a public masterclass of the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, Austria, which led to his receiving private lessons as his last student until Fischer-Dieskau's death in May 2012.

In 2010, Benjamin Appl moved to London to study singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Rudolf Piernay, intending to study part-time while improving his English, before returning to a career in business in Germany after one year.

Benjamin Appl has given recitals regularly at Wigmore Hall in London and the Schubertiade, and has performed at major venues including Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Musee du Louvre in Paris.

Benjamin Appl has performed at the Ravinia Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, LIFE Victoria Festival Barcelona, Leeds Lieder and Oxford Lieder Festival.

Benjamin Appl has collaborated with pianists Graham Johnson and James Baillieu, and has performed recitals with Kit Armstrong, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Helmut Deutsch, Julius Drake, Boris Giltburg, Pavel Kolesnikov, Simon Lepper, Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Martin Stadtfeld and Roger Vignoles.

In 2019, Benjamin Appl performed the role of Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte with The Mozartists, conducted by Ian Page.

Benjamin Appl made his Proms debut in September 2015 singing Triumphlied by Brahms with Marin Alsop and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Orff's Carmina Burana with the BBC Concert Orchestra five days later.

Benjamin Appl has performed regularly at the Hamburg State Opera, singing for several of John Neumeier's productions for the Hamburg Ballet.

In 2012, Benjamin Appl was awarded the German Schubert Society's German Schubert Prize.

Benjamin Appl was a member of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme between 2014 and 2016.

Benjamin Appl became a Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent in 2015.

Benjamin Appl has a vast and varied song catalogue, but his repertoire encompasses opera and concert works from the Renaissance through to the present day.

Kurtag, who according to Benjamin Appl "took on a little bit the role of Fischer-Dieskau" and in 2024 the baritone recorded works by Kurtag with the composer playing some Schubert songs on the piano.

Benjamin Appl has given masterclasses in Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom, the US and Vietnam.

In spring 2020 Benjamin Appl was involved in a new movie project called Breaking Music, which was filmed during his visits of Buenos Aires and Berlin to discover tango, its history and similarities with as well as differences to Lieder.

In 2022, Benjamin Appl, accompanied by James Baillieu, appeared in the BBC film Winter Journey, featuring Schubert's Winterreise, filmed in a tower on the summit of the Julierpass in Switzerland.