Benedikt Kristjánsson
Benedikt Kristjánsson was born in in Húsavík, Iceland. He started his singing lessons at age of 16 with his mother, Margrét Bóasdóttir at the Reykjavik
Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts in Iceland. He graduated from the Reykjavík Conservatory of Music in 2007. He studied with Professor Scot Weir at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, and graduated with honours. He has participated in Masterclasses in Europe by renowned Singers such as Christa Ludwig, Peter Schreier, Elly Ameling, Robert Holl, Thomas Quasthoff, Andreas Schmidt and also the Lied-Pianist Helmut Deutsch.
Benedikt won the 1st Prize of the International Bach Vocal Competition in Greifswald in 2011, and was also awarded the Audience Award. He was the
Winner of the Audience Award in the International Bach Competition in Leipzig 2012.
As a Concert singer he has performed in many of the most celebrated Concert Halls in Europe and the USA, such as Konzerthaus Vienna, Berlin Philharmonie, Chapelle Royal in Versailles, Walt-Disney Hall, Los Angeles and Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Orchestras such as Staatskapelle Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Gaechinger Cantorey, Hofkapelle München, Holland Baroque, Dresdner Barockorchestra, Nederlandse Bachverening, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and Freiburger Barockorchestra. He has worked with manly internationally acclaimed Conductors such as Reinhard Goebel, Reinbert de Leeuw, Vaclav Luks, Christoph Spering, Peter Dijkstra, Hans-Christoph Rademann and Philipe Herreweghe.
Benedikt has performed Opera in Theater Kiel, Staatstheater Braunschweig and at the Staatsoper in Berlin, singing both baroque and modern repertoire.
He has sung in many well known Festivals, such as Musikfest Stuttgart, Thüringer Bach-Wochen, Händelfestspiele Halle, Bachwoche in Ansbach and Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht.
This year he released his first solo-CD, “Drang in die Ferne”, which received much praise from critics in Germany. The program of the CD is a mixture of Icelandic Folksongs and song by Franz Schubert.
On the agenda in 2020 are solo concerts at the Bachfest Leipzig and in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, a recording of the opera “Les Boréades” by Rameau conducted by Vaclav Luks, and a tour of North-America with the Gaechinger Cantorey, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann.