Alois Mühlbacher
„One of the most sought-after countertenors“ (Helmut Mauró, Sueddeutsche Zeitung)

Coming from the forge of the traditional St. Florian Boys' Choir, Alois Mühlbacher made his debut at the Vienna State Opera at the age of 15. Since then, the young countertenor has performed all over the world, including at the opening gala of the Vladivostok Opera House, at the Mozarteum Orchestra's New Year's Eve concert at the Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg and as a soloist in great sacred vocal works by Bach and Händel at the Großer Musikvereinssaal in Vienna. Guest appearances with the Wiener Akademie under Martin Haselböck have taken him to Munich, Los Angeles, Mexico and Madrid.
Mühlbacher has been working regularly with the renowned recorder player and conductor Dorothee Oberlinger since 2021. As "Amyntas" in Telemann's "Pastorelle en musique", he has performed at the Telemann Festival in Magdeburg, the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival, the Innsbruck Early Music Festival and Musica Bayreuth. In a solo program "Grand Tour", Oberlinger and her Ensemble 1700 have already performed together with Alois Mühlbacher at the Winter in Schwetzingen and the Rheinvokal Festival. In 2024, Mühlbacher made his highly successful debut as "Disinganno" in Händel's oratorio "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" at the opening concert of the Early Music Festival in Knechtsteden and in Sicily.
Under the direction of Alfredo Bernardini, he was heard as the title character "Assalonne" in Caldara's oratorio of the same name in Salzburg. At the Landestheater Linz, Mühlbacher appeared as Ismael in the world premiere of Gisle Kverndokk's "Fanny and Alexander", based on the film of the same name by Ingmar Bergman, and at the Musiktheater Linz as "Eustazio" in Georg Friedrich Händel's "Rinaldo".
Highlights in 2023 included his debut at the Künstlerhaus in Munich, a Farinelli recital at the Festival de Sintra in Portugal, Bach cantatas with the Wiener Akademie at the Vienna Musikverein and, above all, a European tour to Paris, Bordeaux, Madrid, Hamburg and Valencia with Händel's Alcina with Les Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski; he also made his debut at La Scala in Milan in this opera in 2024. Mühlbacher also made his debut alongside violinist Dimitris Karakantas with a Vivaldi recital at the opera house in Vilnius/Lithuania in 2024.
He has worked closely with the Ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria and Gunar Letzbor for many years, giving concerts at the Utrecht Early Music Festival and Resonanzen at the Vienna Konzerthaus, among others. Their new CD with cantatas by Antonio Bononcini was released in 2024. As a lieder singer, he surprises with an unusually wide-ranging repertoire for his voice and, together with his piano partner Franz Farnberger, presented the highly acclaimed recording Urlicht with songs by Mahler and Strauss. The CD was nominated in three categories for the Opus Klassik 2023. In the summer of 2023, Franz Farnberger and Alois Mühlbacher founded the ensemble PALLIDOR, which specializes in early music.
He studied acting in Linz and solo singing at the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna with Uta Schwabe and at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Michael Chance.
He was a Sima scholarship holder and completed all his studies with distinction.
In 2024 he took over the artistic direction of the St. Pölten Baroque Festival.
Alois Mühlbacher lives in Vienna. (October 2024)

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