MASTERCLASS FOR SINGING
Univ.-Prof. THOMAS HEYER – Frankfurt University of Music
24 – 29 August 2026
Target group: all singers
Content: The course focuses primarily on vocal training, entirely free from intellectual preconceptions. At its core is an intrinsic movement of the vocal instrument, which is brought to life in the repertoire through a strong sense of emotional joy in music-making. Five opera arias must be prepared by heart!
Up to three sessions per day are offered: vocal technique (Thomas Heyer), répétition (Christoph Schnackertz), and audition training with a workshop character in front of an audience. The course concludes with a public final concert.
Maximum of 10 participants
Sessions: 30 minutes of vocal technique, 30 minutes of répétition – the singing session (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) at 6.00 p.m. may be opened to the public or to friends of Academia Vocalis!
Free afternoon: Thursday
Individual vocal technique lessons, musical interpretation including répétition, individual coaching, repertoire work, language coaching.
Course repertoire: The course repertoire is freely selectable (genre of song excluded)
Registration: requested by no later than 14 August 2026
Meeting point: 24 August 2026, 11.00 a.m., venue to be announced
FINAL CONCERT Masterclass in SINGING
28 August 2026, 8.00 p.m.
Venue to be announced
General information
Participation & costs:
Participation in the masterclasses may be either active or passive. Admission as an active participant is decided by the course leadership following the audition on the first day of the course. An early confirmation of active participation may also be granted after proper registration with Academia Vocalis by 14 August 2026 upon submission of a recording or recording link.
The fee for active participation in the Masterclass in Singing is € 400.
The number of active participants is limited to a maximum of 15 per course.
Language of instruction: German | English
Course certificate: All participants will be ceremonially presented with a course certificate for successful participation in the masterclass during the final concert.
Sheet music: to be provided in three copies
Thomas Heyer, tenor
Tenor Thomas Heyer was born in Waldniel in the Lower Rhine region.
He initially studied school music and German studies in Cologne, followed by studies in singing and vocal pedagogy.
His singing career has taken him throughout Europe, North America and Africa. Thomas Heyer has participated in numerous radio and television productions (WDR, BR, 3sat, HR, Arte, BFBS, etc.), which have also resulted in several CD recordings. His concert repertoire includes the major oratorio roles of his voice type, with which he has appeared and continues to appear in almost all major European concert halls – from the Bach Evangelists through the entire classical and Romantic sacred repertoire to Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, his Eighth Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem. On the opera stage, he has appeared as a Mozart tenor and in bel canto operas, and currently sings tenor roles in the dramatic repertoire. Song recitals form another major focus of his artistic work.
Thomas Heyer has been teaching with great passion for over 25 years. In addition to his professorship in singing at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, he is a guest lecturer at various European universities and leads masterclasses in Germany, Italy, Slovenia, France, Poland, New Zealand, the USA and Canada. His students are engaged at major international opera houses (Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State Opera, La Scala Milan, among others), are prizewinners at international competitions, and work as lecturers and professors at universities and conservatoires.
Christoph Schnackertz
Born in 1984, he received his first piano lessons with Clovis Alessandri and studied in Cologne with Prof. Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Prof. Jürgen Glauss (song accompaniment). Since 2005, he has also received important artistic impulses as a regular accompanist of the singing class of Prof. Christoph Prégardien.
From 2007 to 2010, he was a scholarship holder of “Yehudi Menuhin LiveMusicNow Köln e.V.”, and he is a prizewinner of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition in Berlin (Accompanist Prize 2011). Since October 2011, Christoph Schnackertz has held a teaching position for song interpretation at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.
His repertoire spans all major Romantic song cycles, as well as songs by composers such as Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Wolfgang Rihm, and he works with singers of all voice types. His work is documented in numerous recordings by major broadcasting organisations.
Together with Julian Prégardien, he has formed a permanent duo since 2012. Their joint concert activity has taken them, among other places, to Zurich, Copenhagen, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. In May 2014, the duo’s debut CD “An die Geliebte” was released on the Myrios Classics label in cooperation with Deutschlandfunk. In the near future, the two musicians have been invited to give song recitals at venues including the new Blaibach Concert Hall (Bavarian Forest), the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Schubertiade Hohenems.
His artistic collaboration with Christoph Prégardien has also become increasingly close. In recent years, they have performed together at venues such as Wigmore Hall London (BBC Recital), the Schwetzingen Festival and the Tonhalle Zurich.
In the 2014/2015 season, Christoph Schnackertz accompanied a staged production of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin at the “Theater am Engelsgarten”, the new theatre of Wuppertal.
