Native of Tyrol, Martin Achrainer first completed Drama and Musical training at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, before he began his classical singing studies with Prof. Rotraud Hansmann at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Further formative teachers were Brigitte Fassbaender, Robert Holl, Charles Spencer, Klaus D.Lerche and Reto Nickler.
From 2004 untill 2006 he was first engaged at the Tyrol State Theater. Since the Season 2006/2007 he is a permanent member of the Linz Opera Ensemble, where he is to be heard in the leading roles.
The vast and diversified opera repertoire of this singer reaches from the main parts of Mozart’s operas such as Don Giovanni and Leporello in “Don Giovanni”, Giuglielmo in “Così fan tutte”, Count Almaviva in “The marriage of Figaro”, to Belcore in “The Elixir of Love”, Harlequin in “Ariadne in Naxos” and Sid in “Albert Henning” by Benjamin Britten.
He works with famous conductors and directors such as Dennis Russell Davies, Kurt Masur, Reinhard Schwarz, Ralf Weikert, Dietfried Bernet, Brigitte Fassbaender, Harry Kupfer, Daniela Kurz and Jochen Ulrich.
He dedicates himself to his concert career with great passion, which has lead him to the main concert halls in Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Japan and the USA.
He feels as much at ease in works of the new music (Glass, Schwertsik) and jazz inspired music (Bernstein, Weill) as in the classical repertoire, to which belong Mozart’s Arias, Bach’s Passions, the great works of the romantic sacred music or the ones of the Modernity such as Brahm’s “A German Requiem” and Frank Martin’s “Six Jedermann Monologues”.
Next to opera, Martin Achrainer’s love for music does not miss the “Lied”. Not only has he intensively looked into the abundant german Lied heritage, but he also included more unusual and forgotten works whitin his programs.
In 2004 he was awarded the german Drama Prize of the Doppelfeld Foundation for his interpretation of Papageno at the opera festival of “Schloss Rheinsberg” (Berlin). He is also a prizewinner of the following international singing contests: Robert-Schumann contest (Zwickau), Hugo-Wolf Prize (Vienna), Gradus ad Parnassum and Hilde Zadek competition for literature of the 20th century (Vienna).
In the Season 2009/2010 Martin Achrainer will sing the title role for the premiere of the opera “Kepler”, dedicated to him by composer and Oscar nominee Philip Glass. Among other venues, “Kepler” will be performed in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Famous composers such as Kurt Schwertsik, Alexander Balanescu, Paul Engel, Ernst Ludwig Leiter and Ingo Ingensand have composed works for this singer. Numerous CD, radio and TV recordings document the diversity of his musical work.
