Francisco Araiza is one of the lyric tenors, setting standards primarily as a Mozart and Rossini tenor, but also as a Lied singer, and then, from the mid-1980s onwards, he enjoyed success by expanding into the more dramatic lirico-spinto field (with roles by Verdi, Puccini, Massenet, Gounod and finally Wagner).
He studied voice with Irma Gonzalez at the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica and German repertoire with Erika Kubacsek in his hometown. Before that, he had already graduated in business administration at the university there.
In 1970 he made his operatic debut in Mexico City and in 1974 was a prize-winner at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. This was immediately followed by an engagement at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe. In 1977 he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House as a permanent member of the ensemble. After Herbert von Karajan invited him as Tamino for his recording of The Magic Flute and to the Salzburg Festival in 1980, his world career began, taking him to the great opera houses and to all international festivals, where he worked with the most important conductors and directors of his time.
He has recorded over 100 titles on CD and DVD and received numerous awards such as the „Orphee d’Or“ and the „German Record Prize“. In 1988 he was awarded the title of Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera.
Since the late 1990s, he has increasingly appeared as a singing teacher, with master classes, as a juror at singing competitions and finally, from 2003 to 2016, as a professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. From 2007 on, he served for two years as Artistic Director of the International Hugo Wolf Academy. At the International Opera Studio Zurich, he taught voice technique and stylistic training until 2013. Within the Bertelsmann Foundation, he is active as a juror and lecturer, as well as on the Board of Trustees of the Liz Mohn Culture and Music Foundation and on the Board of Trustees of the European Cultural Foundation Europamusicale. In July 2011, on the occasion of his 40th anniversary of singing, he was honored by the Instituto de Bellas Artes y Literatura y la Compania Nacional de Opera in Mexico City with the Gold Medal of Fine Arts.
More Informations: www.franciscoaraiza.com