The actor Dominique Horwitz’s keen musical sense makes him one of the most sought-after artists in the musical-literary genre — whether in Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, Stravinsky’s L‘Histoire du soldat or Beethoven’s Egmont. He has worked with artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Isabelle Faust and Zubin Mehta.
Dominique Horwitz was born in Paris in 1957 and in 1971 moved to Berlin. He made his film debut at the age of 19, and soon after made his big screen debut in Peter Lilienthal’s David. In 1978 he performed a cabaret-interlude at Berlin’s Cabaret des Westens. Engagements at the Zimmertheater in Tübingen, the Residenztheater in Munich and the Thalia Theater in Hamburg followed.
Dieter Wedel brought him back to the film world in Der große Bellheim, and he made his international breakthrough in 1993 in Joseph Vilsmaier’s Stalingrad. Since then, he has appeared in numerous films and television dramas, while always remaining loyal to the theatre, where his appearances have included The Black Rider (directed by Robert Wilson), Die Dreigroschenoper (directed by Katharina Thalbach) and Harold Pinter’s Mondlicht (Moonlight, directed by Peter Zadek). In 2015 he triumphed as Schiller’s Wallenstein at the German National Theatre in Weimar, and in 2023 he made his debut as Tevye in Anatevka (Fiddler on the Roof) at the Vienna Volksoper.
Having grown up with the chansons of Jacques Brel, he decided in 1984 to present an evening of the great chansonnier’s songs. A success story began. Horwitz singt Brel was performed for the first time at the Vienna Musikverein in 2017, and since 2021 a version of the programme for small orchestra has complemented existing arrangements for big orchestra and six-piece band.
He made his debut as an opera director in 2012 with Weber’s Der Freischütz at Theater Erfurt, directed Shostakovich’s operetta revue Moscow, Cheryomushki at the Musiktheater im Revier in 2018 and in 2019 directed Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg.
His CD recordings include Mendelssohn’s incidental music for Antigone, Athalia and Oedipus in Kolonos (Oedipus at Colonus) with the MDR Symphony Orchestra and L‘Histoire du soldat.
Dominique Horwitz’s awards include the Golden Lion for best performer, the Mephisto Prize, and, most recently, in 2023, the Special Prize of INTHEGA.
