Ilker Arcayürek
tenor
© Janina Laszlo
Ilker Arcayürek, one of the most versatile and exciting singers around today, is appearing at Oper Frankfurt for the first time. This tenor, who was born in Istanbul and grew up in Vienna, won the Hugo Wolf Academy's International Lieder Competition, reached the finals of the 2015 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and was a BBC 3 New Generation Artist. His highly praised first solo album,The Lonely Man, of Schubert Lieder with Simon Lepper, was released in 2017 by Champs Hill Records and their latest album, The Path of Life (Prospero Classical) was nominated twice for a 2021 Opus Klassik prize.
He appears reguarly with orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tonkünstler Orchester, Tokyo Philharmonic, Vienna RSO, the Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de Lyon, Danish Chamber Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors including Mariss Jansons, Ivor Bolton, Laurence Equilbey, Marin Alsop, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Philippe Herreweghe, Riccardo Minasi, Mikhail Pletnev, Lars Vogt, Simon Halsey and Ádám Fischer. Recent performances included Liszt's Faust Symphony with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Collegium Vocale Ghent and the Hamburg Symphonic Chorus, Mozart's C Minor Mass with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bach's Matthew Passion with the Residentie Orkest in Den Haag, Haydn's Creation with the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Britten's Serenade with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra.
After leaving Zurich Opera's international opera studio he joined the ensembles at the Stadttheaters in Klagenfurt (2013– 2015) and Nürnberg (2015–2018), where roles included Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Idomeneo, Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and Rodolfo (La Bohème). He sang in Wagner's Liebesverbot / The Ban on Love at the Teatro Real de Madrid, the world premiere of Brass' Die Vorübergehenden / The Passers By at the Munich Opera Festival, Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at the Salzburg Festival, Lortzing's Zar und Zimmermann at the Volksoper in Vienna and Lyonel in Flotow's Martha and Weber's Oberon at Oper Graz. He made his US debut in 2019, singing Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles in Santa Fe. Roles during 2022/23 included Tamino for the Canadian Opera Company (house debut) and Ariel and Pater Ecstaticus in Schumann's Szenen aus Goethes Faust at Opera Vlaanderen and the Opéra National de Montpellier.
He is passionate about Lieder singing, working regularly with pianists including Simon Lepper, Hartmut Höll, Ammiel Bushakevitz, Daniel Heide and Wolfram Rieger at venues including the Edinburgh International Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Schubertiades in Vilabertran, deSingel Antwerp, Life Victoria Barcelona, the Festwochen in Innsbruck, Hugo Wolf Academy in Stuttgart and, his first recitals in the US, in the Park Avenue Armory in New York and in San Francisco. Future plans include Tamino at the International Edinburgh Festival and in the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo with the Japanese Bach Collegium, concerts including Mozart's Requiem under Philippe Herreweghe in the Alte Oper Frankfurt and recitals in San Francisco, the Wigmore Hall and Schubertiade in Hohenems.