Armin Zanner MA MPhil(Cantab) MMus

Armin Zanner, born in Glasgow, graduated with Starred First Class Honours in Music from Selwyn College, Cambridge, in 2000 and stayed to complete an MPhil on the music of Bartók with Dr. W. Dean Sutcliffe. He subsequently studied singing with Prof. Penelope Mackay and Prof. Rudolf Piernay at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, receiving the MMus with Distinction in 2005.

Armin has taught German Language and Diction at the Guildhall School since 2001 and also teaches ‘Contemporary Specialism’ for singers as well as classes on the performance, poetry and history of Song. He is a Music Studies Tutor and Masters-level Mentor, a member of the School’s team at the international Polifonia Innovative Conservatoire seminars, and in early 2009 helped in the administration of the Vocal Studies Department as Artistic Assistant. He was appointed Deputy Head of Vocal Studies in September 2009.

Recital and concert performances have taken Armin around the UK, Europe and to North America. He was a member of Graham Johnson’s Young Songmakers in 2007, sang for Live Music Now! from 2005-8, took the role of Don Carlos in Campra’s L’Europe Galante on tour with William Christie, and has performed under conductors including Richard Egarr, René Jacobs and Masaaki Suzuki. As a student Armin took part in mastercourses at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden, Austria, as well as at the Académie musicale de Villecroze, which awarded him its scholarship to study with his current teacher, Prof. Tom Krause.

He is a regular contributor to Music Teacher Magazine, has written for various other publications including Classical Music Magazine, Classical Singer Magazine (U.S.), and the Music Education Yearbook, and has produced CD booklet notes for Linn Records.

In addition to his role at the Guildhall School, Armin is Artistic Director of the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, directed by Dr. Deen Larsen. For 2011 he has also been invited to take on the role of Assistant Artistic Director at the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, a new summer programme in Neumarkt, Germany, directed by Prof. Edith Wiens.