Kurt Ollmann

Kurt Ollmann has established a wide-ranging international career in recital, concert, and opera. He first came to prominence singing Riff on the Deutsche Grammophon recording of West Side Story under Leonard Bernstein. He sang Pelléas at La Scala, Milan under Abbado and Don Giovanni in the original Peters Sellars production at Pepsico Summerfare. He also appeared with the opera companies in Vienna, Rome, Brussels, Wexford, Santa Fe, Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles, as well as with New York City Opera. His operatic repertoire has ranged from Papageno (The Magic Flute) and Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos) to Valentin (Faust) and Orin Mannon (Mourning Becomes Electra).

A distinguished orchestral soloist, Ollmann has sung with the London Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre de Paris, Rome’s Accademia de Santa Cecilia, the New York Philharmonic, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as with the orchestras of Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, among many others. Recent oratorio engagements have included the Faure, Brahms and Durufle Requiems and Britten’s War Requiem.

Ollmann has presented song recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and in Paris, Barcelona, Montreal, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and at Tanglewood, as well as at various other European and North American cities and festivals. He has also sung in Lebanon, Kuwait, El Salvador, Honduras, and Bolivia.

Among his many recordings are Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with Placido Domingo on BMG, Gershwin’s Oh, Kay! with Dawn Upshaw on Nonesuch, and a Grammy award-winning version of Bernstein’s Candide, as well as On the Town and Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole under Previn, all on DG. He has also been featured in several PBS specials.

A champion of new American music, Ollmann has premiered many new works and was one of the original performers of the AIDS Quilt Songbook.