Matthias Weichert
The concert takes place at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice Boulevard, Houston, TX 77005. Be sure to attend the pre-concert lecture by noted musicologist Matthew Dirst at 5:15 p.m. in the Parish Hall. There is no admission charge; a free will offering will be accepted. Limited free parking is available on the lot west of Christ the King Church. Ample parking is available for $1 (credit card only) at Rice University’s stadium parking lot on the southeast corner of Rice Boulevard and Greenbriar Street.
Matthias Weichert was born in 1955 in Frankenberg (Saxony), and received his first musical education as a member of the St. Thomas Boys Choir from 1965 to 1974. Subsequently he studied voice at the Conservatory of Music Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden where he received diplomas in opera and vocal pedagogy in 1981. After graduation professional engagements brought him to several theatres in Saxony, to the National Opera Brussels, as well as to the Komische Oper in Berlin, the Berlin Staatsoper and the Leipzig Opera.
Matthias Weichert is winner of the Robert-Schumann-Prize (Zwickau, Saxony), the Hugo Wolf-Prize (Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg) and received a stipend from the Bayreuth Festival. He retired from a 20-year career on the opera stage in the summer of 2000, and since then has been active as a freelance concert and oratorio singer. He is in demand at international festivals and with well-known orchestras and conductors; concert tours have taken him to nearly all the major European music centers, to Israel, South Korea, Japan and the USA. He has made numerous recordings for CD and radio broadcast documenting his artistic work.
He has been teaching at the Conservatory of Church Music Dresden since 1997, and has been Professor of Voice at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden for the last twelve years.