Ulf Bästlein
Ulf Bästlein graduated in Classics and German at the University of Freiburg, thereafter completing a doctorate funded by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. Subsequently he studied singing at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, where he graduated with distinction. His stage career began at the Stadttheater in Heidelberg. Since then, he has performed in Augsburg, Hannover, Lübeck, and Hamburg among others and won numerous awards (including the second prize at the German Music Competition). Bästlein has performed in many countries across Europe as well as China, the United States, and Turkey and is a frequent guest at international music festivals, including the Flanders Festival (Belgium), the Stresa Festival (Italy), Styriarte (Austria), Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Ludwigsburg Palace Festival and Herrenchiemsee Festival (Germany). He has performed in song recitals with Charles Spencer, Michael Gees, James Tocco, Julius Drake, Stacey Bartsch, Axel Bauni, Detlef Kraus and Hedayet Jonas Djeddikar. Bästlein has recorded songs of Anselm Hüttenbrenner and Gustav Jenner, settings of Heine, Goethe, Storm, Hebbel, Voß, Trakl and Leitner, as well as the cycles Winterreise and Dichterliebe, along with drinking songs. He has performed in oratorios and operas (including many world premiere recordings) for Sony Classical, CPO, Orfeo, Naxos and Hänssler labels.
Since 2001 he has taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. Ulf Bästlein was director and the co-founder of the postgraduate school (artistic research) at the university from 2009 to 2018. He holds masterclasses in China, Russia, Turkey and Italy.
In 2000, together with the pianist Charles Spencer, he founded “Liedkunst” in Husum (Schleswig-Holstein), a festival dedicated to the promotion of rising talent. Bästlein is also editor of Anselm Hüttenbrenner’s Lieder and author of publications on the early 19th-century German Lied and other scholarly articles. He has developed new and innovative concert formats: panel discussions on literary and music history, alternating readings and Lied performances.
For more information, visit www.ulf-baestlein.eu.
