The Austrian bass-baritone Martin Winkler is undoubtedly one of the leading singers of his repertoire. He was born in Bregenz and studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with KS Walter Berry.
Following his debut in 2003 in the title role of Le Grand Macabre at the Komische Oper Berlin, he received invitations from Opéra de Lyon, the Prague State Opera, and the Volksoper Vienna, among others.
Permanent engagements took Winkler via Schwerin and the Komische Oper Berlin back to the Volksoper Vienna in 2009, where he performed many of the central roles of his repertoire for the first time, including Schicchi, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Kezal in The Bartered Bride, as well as the Ruler in The Miracle of Heliane and Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Since then, Winkler has appeared as a guest artist at the Bregenz Festival (Maskerade, Tosca, Solaris), Graz (Wozzeck), Rome, Brussels, Stockholm, Warsaw, Nuremberg (Alberich), Teatro Real Madrid (Alberich in Ring, Waldner in Arabella, and The Nose), Covent Garden London (Maskerade, The Nose), Stuttgart (Klingsor in Parsifal), Düsseldorf (Alberich in Siegfried), the Metropolitan Opera New York (Waldner in Arabella, Tierbändiger in Lulu), the Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, Dresden, Leipzig, Geneva, Zurich, Brussels, and elsewhere.
In 2013, he performed Alberich in the new production of Ring der Nibelungen under Petrenko and Castorf at the Bayreuth Festival.
In 2019, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Jupiter in Orphée aux enfers, directed by Barrie Kosky.
The COVID-19 pandemic prevented his plans to sing Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier for the first time in Brussels and Moscow. The Brussels production was postponed until 2022 and became a major personal success. Future engagements include returns to Munich and Madrid. He will remain a member of the Volksoper Vienna ensemble for the coming seasons.
In May 2022, Martin Winkler was awarded the honorary title of Kammersänger of the Republic of Austria.
Martin Winkler received the Artist Award 2024 at the Teatro Real Awards 2024. The award recognized his outstanding artistry as a bass-baritone and his exceptional portrayal of Platon Kuzmitch Kovalyov in The Nose (premiered in 2023).