During his studies with Paul Kuën and Raimund Grumbach, Christian Gerhaher attended the opera school at the Munich University of Music, where he also studied Lieder interpretation with Friedemann Berger. Alongside his medical studies, he further refined his vocal training in masterclasses with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Inge Borkh. He currently leads a class in Lieder interpretation at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts together with Gerold Huber and also teaches as Honorary Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
For well over 30 years, Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber have devoted themselves as a duo to the interpretation of songs — both in concert and on recordings — receiving numerous major awards over the years. The duo performs regularly at the world’s leading Lieder venues: in New York’s major halls, at the Muziekgebouw and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Philharmonie halls in Cologne, Luxembourg and Berlin, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela, La Scala in Milan, and particularly frequently at London’s Wigmore Hall; they also appear at festivals including Munich, Aix-en-Provence, Heidelberg, Salzburg, Granada, Berlin, Lucerne, Edinburgh, the Rheingau and Schleswig-Holstein. In October 2025, the "Liedwoche Elmau," curated by the duo, took place for the fifth time.
Collaborations with conductors such as Daniel Harding, Sir Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Christian Thielemann, Kirill Petrenko, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Antonio Pappano, Daniel Barenboim, Andris Nelsons and Mariss Jansons have taken Christian Gerhaher to the world’s leading concert halls. He performs particularly frequently with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and especially the Berlin Philharmonic – where he was the first singer to serve as Artist in Residence – as well as with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and, in particular, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
On the concert stage, the baritone appears in the 2025/26 season in Munich as Wozzeck with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle and in Basel with Mahler’s songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" with the Basel Symphony Orchestra under Markus Poschner. With Othmar Schoeck’s "Elegie", released on CD by Sony in 2022, he is a guest in Switzerland with the Basel Chamber Orchestra. He also performs Hector Berlioz’s richly colored cycle "Les Nuits d’été", in Cologne with the Gürzenich Orchestra under Riccardo Minasi and in Munich with the Bavarian State Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado.
This season’s recitals are dedicated entirely to Franz Schubert. With their new composer portrait, the duo Gerhaher-Huber appears in Madrid, London, Amsterdam and Berlin. During the Munich Opera Festival, they present on two evenings a unique juxtaposition of "Winterreise" with Othmar Schoeck’s "Elegie", also known as the "Swiss Winterreise" – this time in its piano version.
On the opera stage, Christian Gerhaher is a highly sought-after performer, honored with awards including the Laurence Olivier Award and the German theatre prize "Der Faust". His roles include Posa ("Don Carlo"), Amfortas ("Parsifal"), Lenau ("Lunea", world premiere 2018), Figaro and the Conte di Almaviva ("Le nozze di Figaro"), as well as the title roles in "L’Orfeo", "Don Giovanni", "Pelléas et Mélisande", "Simon Boccanegra", and "Der Prinz von Homburg". A milestone in his operatic career was his portrayal of Wozzeck in September 2015 in Andreas Homoki’s acclaimed production at the Zurich Opera House. The key role of Wolfram in Wagner’s "Tannhäuser" remains a constant in his schedule at the opera houses of New York, Berlin, Vienna, London and Munich, as well as at the Salzburg Easter Festival with Andris Nelsons conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra.
In the 2025/26 season, he again appears as Wolfram in a new "Tannhäuser" production at the Zurich Opera House under Tugan Sokhiev. He also sings the Conte ("Le nozze di Figaro") at the Opéra National de Paris, Palais Garnier. For the first time, he performs Wotan in a new production of Wagner’s "Das Rheingold" at the Salzburg Opera Festival with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko.
As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Christian Gerhaher has released numerous recordings, including the song cycles of Schubert, Schumann and Mahler with Gerold Huber. A landmark project was the complete recording of all songs by Robert Schumann, released in autumn 2021 – an ambitious undertaking developed over many years in co-production with Bavarian Radio and the Heidelberg Spring Festival. In early 2022 followed Schoeck’s "Elegie" with the Basel Chamber Orchestra under Heinz Holliger, Holliger’s opera "Lunea" (ECM), and Rihm’s Stabat Mater with Tabea Zimmermann. In the same year, his book "Lyrisches Tagebuch", a collection of essays on Lieder interpretation, was published by C. H. Beck. In 2023, Mahler’s "Das Lied von der Erde" was released with Piotr Beczała as tenor partner and Gerold Huber at the piano; in May 2025, an album of selected Brahms songs followed.
Christian Gerhaher lives in Munich with his wife and their three children.