The Dutch baritone
Maarten Koningsberger has established a successful European career in opera and song recitals in a wide repertory ranging from
Monteverdi to
Maderna.
He studied music in Amsterdam. His teachers have been
Max von Egmond,
Udo Reinemann,
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Margreet Honig.
After graduation, he joined the School of Lyric Art of the Opéra de Paris, that institution's program for young singers. This gave him the opportunity to sing in several opera productions in France and Italy by composers as diverse as
Debussy,
Maderna, Menotti,
Mozart, Offenbach,
Poulenc,
Rameau, and
Strauss.
His recital repertory is similarly broad and includes mastery of standard and period performance styles. He sang as a soloist on a tour with
William Christie and
Les Arts Florissants. As a solo recitalist, he is often accompanied by such major artists as
Irwin Gage and
Graham Johnson and has recorded CD programs of songs by
Schubert,
Robert Schumann, and
Milhaud and solo cantatas by Campra and Blankenburg.
Critics assess his voice as well suited to the intimacy of the song form with a compelling quality even in quiet passages. The voice is characterized as lyrical, warm, and deep, yet with the authentic baritone rather than bass quality.
Koningsberger has broadcast on several European radio companies and teaches at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and the Baroque Music Center in Versailles, France. He records for the Hyperion label and has participated in the company's epochal traversal of the entire song literature of
Franz Schubert with
Graham Johnson as pianist.