Croatian bass-baritone, Krešimir Stražanac, was born 1983 in Croatia. He studied voice with Dunja Vejzović and art song interpretation with Cornelis Witthoefft at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart and privately with Jane Thorner Mengedoht and Hanns-Friedrich Kunz. After the studies, Krešimir Stražanac joined the Zürich Opera roster as an ensemble member. He appeared as Baron Tusenbach in ‘Three Sisters’, Ping in ’Turandot ’, Harlequin in ’Ariadne auf Naxos’ and Don Fernando in ’Fidelio’ under the batons of such conductors as Nello Santi, Peter Schneider, Franz Welser-Möst, Bernard Haitink, Placido Domingo and many others.
The bass-baritone won numerous competitions, for example the International Cantilena Competition in Bayreuth (Opera/Operetta Division) and the International La Voce Competition of Bavarian Radio and Television (Art Song Category) as well as the International Hugo Wolf Competition in the composer's birthplace (Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia).
Krešimir Stražanac has an extensive oratorio and concert repertoire, including J. S. Bach’s and Telemann’s Bass Cantatas, the Passions, B-minor Mass (BWV 232) and ‘Christmas Oratorio’ (BWV 248), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Haydn's ‘The Creation’, the Brahms and Mozart ‘Requiems’, Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ and ‘St. Paul’, Rossini’s ‘Petite Messe Solennelle’ and ‘Stabat Mater’, Franck’s ‘Les Béatitudes’, Bruckner’s ‘Te Deum’, and many additional works spanning early Baroque to contemporary music.
In the current season he will appear at the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Musikverein, the London Barbican Center, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, the Leipzig Gewandhaus as well as many other concert halls and will make further debuts with Contentus Musicus Wien (conductor Stefan Gottfried), the MDR Sinfonieorchester (conductor Risto Joost) as well as the European Union Youth Orchestra (conductor Manfred Honeck).
It should be noted, moreover, that Mr. Stražanac frequently performs vocal recitals (art songs and operatic arias). Venues for these events have included Bayreuth, Dijon, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Zürich, Klagenfurt, Périgueux, Stuttgart and Venice. Additionally, the artist has completed several recital tours of Japan.
