Marcus Küchle is both an arts manager and active pianist. Küchle is the Director of Artistic Operations & New Works Development at the Cincinnati Opera, following previous engagements at San Francisco Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper in his hometown of Munich, Germany. He is also Co-Artistic Director of Opera Fusion: New Works, a joint venture between Cincinnati Opera and the UC College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), whose goal is the development of new North American operas, including this year’s featured Fellow Travelers. He is currently working on 7 new operas between now and 2021, and practicing a new song cycle written for him. Küchle is also a frequent judge at vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a panelist for Opera America. He has been a guest lecturer at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the University of Kentucky School of Music.
Marcus Küchle maintains an active performing and recording schedule that has taken him throughout the US, Canada, England (Wigmore Hall), Germany, and most recently again to New York and Montreal.
Among other conductors, Mr. Küchle was privileged to have been one of the last protégés of the late Maestro Erich Kunzel, who hired him repeatedly as concerto soloist. But Küchle is equally comfortable as a chamber musician, partnering with members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and also as solo pianist, most recently collaborating with Cincinnati Ballet. However, vocal accompaniment has always played an important role in Marcus Küchle’s creative output since he was hired starting at age 12 as page turner for the recital series at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Observing up-close an entire generation of the world’s leading singers and pianists turned this into one of his most formative musical experiences.
Küchle holds degrees from the prestigious Hochschule für Musik (Munich, Germany), where he studied under Olaf Dreßler and Halina Siedzieniewska, and Indiana University, where he studied under Edward Auer, himself a student of the legendary Rosina Lhevinne.
Marcus Küchle makes his home in Cincinnati and at Lake Tegernsee, south of Munich among the foothills of the German Alps.