About

Arno Raunig is the first Austrian Countertenor and Sopranist, multifaceted artist. He is one of the main figures, like Alfred George Deller in England, in popularizing the return of the countertenor voice to Renaissance and Baroque music in Austria in the 20th century. But he went further than Deller and revived the most difficult baroque arias that can only be sung by virtuoso famous castrati such as Farinelli, Caffarelli, Senesino.

His voice recognized as one of the finest among Countertenors and Sopranists and has power, sweetness and range in the voice, tenderness, grace and rapidity in the style, like natural Castrati (e.g. Farinelli). He has extraordinary wide vocal range (F – f3) - it’s about four octaves, allows him to perform both the castrato repertoire and works written for countertenors. He easily interprets castrati arias and can also perform bass-baritone arias and arias for countertenors.

He sang everywhere in the world - from America to New Zealand. His career has continued for more than half a century: at the age of 9, he started as a soloist with the Vienna Boys' Choir and for this time he has been celebrated at the Operas of Rom, Vienna, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Dresden, Zurich, Warschau and so on.

Performer of world premieres from operas: A. Schnittke «Die Historie des Dr. Faustus» as Mephostophiles, Helmut Öhring, Norbert Zehm etc.

He is also an author, producer and  promoter. His repertoire now encompasses more than 50 roles, with over 2000 career performances.