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Baritone Johannes Held combines an international career in concert and opera with a distinctive profile as an interpreter of song. Critics have described his voice as firm and glowing, with a gripping expressive force.
He began as a member of the Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben and studied in Freiburg and at the Royal Danish Opera Academy in Copenhagen with Susanna Eken. His studies were supported by the German National Academic Foundation, the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst, the Richard Wagner Foundation and the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg. After a season in the ensemble of the Oldenburg State Theatre, where his roles included Papageno, Guglielmo and Dr. Falke, he has worked as a freelance artist.
In concert he has appeared with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano under Claus Peter Flor and Ruben Jais, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under Andris Poga, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Simon Gaudenz and the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Tzigane. His oratorio repertoire includes Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and St. Paul, Brahms’s German Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and Handel’s Messiah. New music is close to his heart: he gave the world premieres of Steingrimur Rohloff’s “Schumann Fragments” with the Copenhagen Phil and of his War Requiem in Odense. The Canadian composer Patrick Mathieu wrote his “Galgenlieder” for baritone and orchestra for him; Held premiered the work in 2021 with the Orchestre symphonique de Drummondville.
On the opera stage he made his debut at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen as Morales in David McVicar’s “Carmen” and sang the Manservant in Berg’s “Lulu”, directed by Stefan Herheim, later also in Bolzano. At Wermland Opera he appeared as Escamillo and as Panait in Martinů’s “The Greek Passion”, at the Mainz State Theatre as Konrad Nachtigall in “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, and at the Danish National Opera as Markis D’Argenville in Schierbeck’s “Fête galante”. In 2027 he returns to Aarhus as Dandini in Rossini’s “La Cenerentola”.
Song lies at the centre of his work. He has given more than 250 recitals, from Schubert and Wolf to Mahler, with pianists including Doriana Tchakarova, Daniel Heide, Götz Payer, Jean-Sélim Abdelmoula and Gábor Csalog, at venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Oxford International Song Festival, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Liedstadt Hamburg and the Liederhalle Stuttgart. In 2015 he and Christian Westergaard won second prize at the Copenhagen Lied Duo Competition. With his own formats he extends the idea of the song recital: “Winterreise staged”, a scenic version of Schubert’s cycle, has been performed in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Austria, including at the Roskilde Schubertiade and, at the invitation of the Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie, at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart. “Herr Nuss” brings together music, text and performance.
His recordings include Winterreise with Daniel Beskow (ARS Musikproduktion, 2018), Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39 and Kerner Lieder Op. 35 with Götz Payer (écoutez, 2023), and “Erlkönig – 13 Settings” with Doriana Tchakarova (écoutez, 2026).
Since 2012 he has directed the Liedfestival Sindelfingen, which grew out of the art song festival DER ZWERG, and since 2023 he has led the Liedakademie Sindelfingen together with Prof. Götz Payer. He is vocal coach of the Baden-Württemberg State Youth Choir and has taught at the Festival Academy Budapest and in the Young Artist Program of the Opéra de Montréal.
In the 2026/27 season he sings Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer” in Maurice Béjart’s choreography with the Stuttgart Ballet, and in autumn 2027 the title role in Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”.