Mario Lerchenberger | Tenor
“Frenetic acclaim for Mario Lerchenberger, vocally and as an actor – the Bravi for him were numerous and well-deserved – elegantly designed legato bows – excellent technique – effortlessly over the orchestra – a stunningly good, Bayreuth-mature Steuermann – outstanding …”
At the beginning of the current season, Austrian tenor Mario Lerchenberger embodies the role of Uriel in the scenic version of Haydn’s Creation at the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg conducted by Gabriel Venzago. At the Graz Opera, whose ensemble he has been a member of since the 2021/22 season, he sings the title role in Rameau’s Pigmalion, Gastone (La Traviata), Hans (The Bartered Bride), Kudrjasch (Katja Kabanova) and is a soloist in Britten’s War Requiem as well as in Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust.
In April 2022, Mario Lerchenberger made a brilliant debut as Steuermann in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and received rave reviews and great acclaim from the public and the press. He has also sung Loge (Der Ring an eine Abend), Trabucco (Forza del destino) and Fedja (Anatevka).
At the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz he performed Camille de Rosillon in Lehár’s The Merry Widow, besides as part of the OpernKurzgenuss at Oper Graz as Tancredi in Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. In February 2018 he sang – also at the KUG – Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, followed in May of this year by Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
His concert repertoire includes various masses (among others by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert), as well as a large number of songs, as well as works such as Bach’s St. John Passion, Handel’s Messiah (also in an arrangement by WA Mozart), Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Orff’s Carmina Burana or Ariel Ramírez’ Misa Criolla.
He attended master classes and workshops with Romualdo Savastano, Cheryl Studer, Chris Merritt, Marius Vlad, Brigitte Fassbänder and Emma Kirkby, among others.
As a conductor he devotes himself primarily to choral music, although his previous conducting activities also include numerous performances of orchestral masses and other choral-orchestral works. He leads and coaches choirs and ensembles in the Graz area and is in great demand as a voice trainer for choirs due to his experience in this area.
Mario Lerchenberger studied singing with Tom Sol at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz (KUG), as well as song with Joseph Breinl and oratorio with Robert Heimann. He also studied choral conducting with Franz M. Herzog, conducting (focus on chorus) with Johannes Prinz and vocal pedagogy.
“Der junge Tenor Mario Lerchenbergerverfügt über eine strahlend helle Stimme. Dank phänomenaler Technik und feinem Legato gelingt es ihm mühelos, sich an Bord des sturmumtosten Schiffes gegenüber dem mächtig aufrauschenden Orchester zu behaupten. Bewundernswert auch sein zunehmendes Entsetzen, als er miterleben muss, wie die von ihm heimlich angebetete Senta von ihrem Vater an den Holländer verschachert wird. Ein auch darstellerisch überzeugender Tenor mit Zukunft, der beim Schlussapplaus auch entsprechend gefeiert wird.” (onlinemerker.com, 1.5.2022)