Georg Zeppenfeld, a renowned bass from Attendorn in Westphalia, began his musical career with a teaching degree in music and German studies. At the same time, he honed his skills in concert and opera singing at the renowned music academies in Detmold and Cologne, where he completed his training under the guidance of Hans Sotin.
After his first engagements in Münster and Bonn, he was engaged by the Saxon State Opera in Dresden in 2001, which remains his artistic home to this day.
In addition to his outstanding performances in Dresden, he has enriched the stages of the most important opera houses in Europe and the United States and has also appeared at the most renowned concert venues worldwide.
His repertoire includes important roles in both the Italian and German repertoire. He shines as Rocco (Fidelio), Kaspar (Der Freischütz), King Karl (Schubert: Fierrabras), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Zaccaria (Nabucco), Banco (Macbeth), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), King Philipp II (Don Carlo), Daland (Daland) and the famous King of the Italian Opera. (Don Carlo), Daland (Der fliegende Holländer), Landgrave Hermann (Tannhäuser), King Heinrich (Lohengrin), King Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Hunding (Die Walküre), Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Veit Pogner and Hans Sachs (Die Meistersinger) as well as Baculus (Der Wildschütz), Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Wassermann (Rusalka), Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande), Pimen (Boris Godunov), Peneios (Strauss: Daphne) and La Roche (Capriccio).
One of his key roles is that of Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute, which he successfully performed in Baden-Baden under the baton of Claudio Abbado. This role brought him recognition not only at the Semperoper Dresden, but also at the San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival (under Nikolaus Harnoncourt), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Zurich Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. His remarkable debut as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the 2019 Salzburg Easter Festival under the baton of Christian Thielemann marked a milestone in the bass repertoire.
He has been a regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival since 2010, where he impressively embodies the most important roles in his repertoire.
In the 2023/24 season, he will once again be seen on the stage of his home theatre in Dresden, including in productions of Figaro, Der Freischütz, Tristan und Isolde, Die Zauberflöte and Fidelio. He will also be heard at Zurich Opera House in Verdi's Requiem. Further highlights in the coming season include his appearances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in Tannhäuser, at the Bavarian State Opera in Parsifal, at the Vienna State Opera in Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger as well as his engagements at the Bayreuth Festival in Parsifal and Der fliegende Holländer.
Georg Zeppenfeld is particularly dedicated to concert singing. He has had the opportunity to work with renowned conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Thomas Hengelbrock, Marek Janowski, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Andris Nelsons, Marc Minkowski, Antonio Pappano, Kirill Petrenko, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst.
In the coming season, Georg Zeppenfeld will perform twice under the direction of Kiril Petrenko: In Mahler's 8th Symphony with the Bavarian State Orchestra and at the end of the year with the Berlin Philharmonic in a concert performance of the first act of Wagner's Walküre.
His impressive and diverse oeuvre has been recorded on numerous CD and DVD releases as well as in radio and television productions by European broadcasters. Georg Zeppenfeld was appointed "Kammersänger der Sächsischen Staatsoper Dresden" in 2015 for his extraordinary achievements. In 2018, he also received the prize from the Foundation for the Promotion of the Dresden Semperoper and in 2022 he was awarded the Austrian Music Theatre Prize for his outstanding performance in Parsifal at the Vienna State Opera.