Celebrated as one of the leading tenors of our times, the German-Canadian Michael Schade makes regular guest appearances on stage across Europe and North America. Opera and concert performances have taken him over the years to the Verbier, Lucerne, Grafenegg, Glyndebourne and Salzburg Festivals, the Hamburg and Berlin State Operas, the Metropolitan Opera, Bavarian State Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Liceu Barcelona, London’s Royal Opera House, the Opéra Bastille in Paris and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. He enjoyed a particularly close collaboration with the Vienna State Opera, where he could be heard in all major Mozart and Strauss roles of his fach.
In the spring of 2023, he enjoyed notable success as Herod in a new production of Strauss' Salome at the Canadian Opera Company before making his Australian debut in autumn 2023 in Melbourne as Flamand in Strauss’ Capriccio under Simone Young, followed by the title role in Mozart's Idomeneo at Opera Australia. In April 2025, he garnered acclaim as the Hauptmann in Berg's Wozzeck at the Canadian Opera Company.
In concert he has performed a repertoire ranging from Bach's Passions to Mahler's Lied von der Erde together with leading orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Symphony orchestras of Toronto, Montreal and Boston, under such renowned conductors as Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, Daniel Harding, Pablo Heras-Casado, Philippe Jordan, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Robin Ticciati, Franz Welser-Möst among others. His musical activities were strongly influenced by his frequent collaboration with Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
In the 2025-2026 season Michael Schade will perform as a soloist in Orff's Carmina Burana under Andres Orozco-Estrada at the Rheingau Festival and in the Cologne Philharmonie, as well as later in Lucerne and Antwerp. Additional highlights will include an appearance with the Hofkapelle München under Rüdiger Lotter in Der Stein der Weisen at the Theater an der Wien, Verdi's Requiem in Calgary, and a Dowland programme together with Fahmi Alqhuai in Spain. In recital he can be heard at the Brucknerhaus Linz, Thalheim Castle, in Bad Schönau, Melk and Wiener Neustadt.
His expansive discography includes numerous award-winning recordings be it those with Harnoncourt (Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Verdi's Messa da Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Orlando Paladino, Mozart's Zaide and La clemenza di Tito), Mahler's Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez, or Mozart's Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado.
In 2007, Michael Schade was honoured with the title of Austrian Kammersänger. Since 2014, he has been the artistic director of the International Baroque Days at Melk Abbey, where he also appears regularly in concert. In 2017 he became an Officer to the Order of Canada (OC), and in 2019 took up the position as singing professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
