Kammersänger (male; ) or Kammersängerin (female; ), abbreviated Ks. or KS, is a German honorific title for distinguished singers of opera and classical music.Kammersänger PONS Online Dictionary It literally means "chamber singer". Historically, the title was bestowed by princes or kings, when it was styled Hofkammersänger(in), where Hof refers to the royal court.
The title is given in Germany and in Austria usually on the recommendation of relevant national and local institutions. In East Germany, some concert halls bestowed this designation.
Similar titles are , Staatsschauspieler, , ,Ehrentitel Kammervirtuose, Dresden 2023 and Kammerkomponist/Kammerkompositeur.
Titles and recipients Austria Österreichischer Kammersänger / Österreichische Kammersängerin The honorary title is awarded by the Federal President of Austria on the proposal of the responsible Federal Minister since 1971.
Germany Lilli Lehmann (1876) Elise Kutscherra de Nyss (Coburg, 1894) Gerhard Unger (1952) Theo Adam (1955) Anny Schlemm (Frankfurt, 1963) Sigrid Kehl (Leipzig, 1963) Hans-Dieter Bader (Hanover, 1981) Alfred Vökt (Frankfurt, 1989) Günter Wewel (Dortmund, 1989) Hermann Becht (1992) Margit Neubauer (Frankfurt, 1993) (Frankfurt, 1993) Axel Köhler (Halle, 1998) Klaus Schneider (Karlsruhe, 2003) Linda Watson (Düsseldorf, 2004) Doris Soffel (Cologne, 2007) Hans-Otto Weiß (Mainz, 2010) Eike Wilm Schulte (Wiesbaden, 2010) Winfrid Mikus (Heidelberg, 2011) Roland Hartmann (Meiningen, 2011) Barbara Zechmeister (Frankfurt, 2011) Romelia Lichtenstein (Halle, 2012) Hannes Brock (Dortmund, 2012) Jörg Sabrowski (Kiel, 2012) Heike Wittlieb (Kiel, 2012) Thomas de Vries (Wiesbaden, 2014) Jochen Kupfer (Nürnberg, 2016) Thomas Jesatko (Mannheim, 2016) (Erfurt, 2017) Tomohiro Takada (Kiel, 2017) Jeffrey Dowd (Essen, 2019) Claudia Mahnke (Frankfurt, 2021) Christina Clark (Essen, 2022) Marie-Helen Joël (Essen, 2022) Rainer Maria Röhr (Essen, 2022) Wilfried Staber (Heidelberg, 2022) Samuel Youn (Cologne, 2022) Morgan Moody (Dortmund, 2023) (Hanover, 2023) Frank Schneiders (Hanover, 2023) Jürgen Rust (Mainz) Wilma Schmidt (Hanover) Vilma Fichtmüller Ute Walther (Berlin?)
Berlin Berliner Kammersänger / Berliner Kammersängerin
The honorary title has been given by the Senate of Berlin since 1962. In the reunified Berlin, from 1990 to 2010, 17 singers have received this honor. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1963) Sieglinde Wagner (1963) Sylvia Geszty (1968) Peter Lagger (1970) Erika Köth (1970) Ingvar Wixell (1970) Barry McDaniel (1970) Vera Little (1970) Gundula Janowitz (1974) José van Dam (1974) Karl-Josef Hering (1975) Catarina Ligendza (1976) Siegfried Lorenz (1979) (1983) Uta Priew (1984) Jochen Kowalski (1994) Karan Armstrong (1994) Matti Salminen (1995) (1995) (1998) René Pape (2000) Roman Trekel (2000) (2001) Christiane Oertel (2003) Clemens Bieber (2010) Reinhard Hagen (2010) Lenus Carlson (2010) Michaela Kaune (2011) Brigitte Geller (2012) Peter Renz (2012) Jens Larsen (2013) Peter Seiffert (2014) Dorothea Röschmann (2016) Victor von Halem (2016) Kwangchul Youn (2018) Karolina Gumos (2022) (2022) Caren van Oijen (2022) Tom Erik Lie (2022) Evelyn Lear Ernst Haefliger
Werner Enders Erich Witte Celestina Casapietra
Bavaria Bayerischer Kammersänger / Bayerische Kammersängerin
The title has been awarded by the Bavarian Ministry of Culture since 1955 for outstanding artistic achievements to singing soloists of the Bavarian State Opera, the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and the Staatstheater Nürnberg. , more than 130 artists have been honoured. The prerequisite is at least five years of membership in an ensemble at a state theater or regular guest appearances.
Gottlob Frick (1954) Hans Hotter (1955) Erika Köth (1955) Hertha Töpper (1955) Leonie Rysanek (1956) Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1959) Fritz Wunderlich (1962) Kieth Engen (1962) Lisa della Casa (1963) Inge Borkh (1963) Astrid Varnay (1963) Karl-Christian Kohn Ingeborg Hallstein (1968) Birgit Nilsson (1970) Brigitte Fassbaender (1970) Gisela Ehrensperger (1974) Wolfgang Brendel (1976) Hermann Winkler (1977) Kurt Moll (1979) Júlia Várady (1979) Willi Brokmeier (1980) Edith Mathis (1980) Theo Adam (1980) Plácido Domingo (1981) Lucia Popp (1983) Hildegard Behrens (1987) Helen Donath (1988) Edita Gruberova (1989) Peter Seiffert (1992) Waltraud Meier (1996) Ann Murray (1998) Felicity Lott (2003) Thomas Allen (2003) Gabriele Schnaut (2003) Matti Salminen (2003) Vesselina Kasarova (2005) Anja Harteros (2007) Diana Damrau (2007) Anne Lünenbürger (2008) Frances Pappas (2008) Jonas Kaufmann (2013) Wolfgang Koch (2014) Christian Gerhaher (2015) Jochen Kupfer (2016) Anja Kampe (2018) Alex Esposito (2020) Marlis Petersen (2021) Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (2021) (2021) (2021) (2021) Bo Skovhus (2022) Nina Stemme (2022) (2023) Martin Hausberg (2024) Gerald Finley (2024) (2024) Benno Kusche
Hamburg Hamburger Kammersänger / Hamburger Kammersängerin
Since 1961, the title has been given by the Hamburg Senate. , it has been awarded 28 times since 1928. Toni Blankenheim (1961) Helga Pilarczyk Ursula Boese (1969) Plácido Domingo (1975) Kurt Moll (1975) Franz Grundheber (1986) Heinz Kruse (1988) Harald Stamm (1988) Luciano Pavarotti (1989) Bernd Weikl (1993) Gabriele Schnaut (1995) Andreas Schmidt (1997) (2011) Gabriele Rossmanith (2011) Andrzej Dobber (2015) (2017) (2017) (2017) Klaus Florian Vogt (2019) (2024) Olga Peretyatko (2024) Christoph Pohl (2024) Alexander Tsymbalyuk (2024)
Saxony Sächsischer Kammersänger / Sächsische Kammersängerin The title has been for members of the ensembles of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the Landesbühnen Sachsen since 1998. (1985) Evelyn Herlitzius (2002) Camilla Nylund (2008) Georg Zeppenfeld (2015) Christa Mayer (2020) Günther Leib
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württembergischer Kammersänger / Baden-Württembergische Kammersängerin Reinhold Fritz (1917) Fritz Schaetzler (1930–1945) Wolfgang Windgassen (1951) Marga Höffgen (1976) (1977) Karan Armstrong (1985) Hans Rössling (1988) Erich Syri (1989) (1993) (1996) Paata Burchuladze (1998) (2001) Catriona Smith (2003) Simone Schneider (2016) Konstantin Gorny (2006) Yuko Kakuta (2016) Liang Li (2016) Torsten Hofmann (2016) (2018) Diana Haller (2021) Adam Palka (2021) Matthias Wohlbrecht (2022)
Sweden and Denmark The equivalent designation in Sweden and Denmark are respectively hovsångare (male) or hovsångerska (female) and kongelige kammersangere.
References