Marcel Durka

The baritone Marcel Durka is currently a student at the University of Music, Theatre and Media in Hanover. He is a prize-winner of numerous competitions, including the International Antonín Dvořák Singing Competition (2022), the Carl Schroeder Competition (also 2022) and the Beethoven Bonnensis Competition (2020). In 2024 he was a finalist in the International Otto Edelmann Singing Competition in Vienna. He also holds a scholarship from Cusanuswerk. In 2026 he won second prize, the young artist award and the prize for best Lied interpretation at the Eighth International Haydn Competition for Classical Lied and Aria.

In summer 2025 he participated in the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival, where he sang King in Sebastian Schwab’s children’s opera Musketiere! and the Major Domo in a concert performance of Andrea Chénier. In the same year he was a Young Artist at the Leeds Song Festival.

In conservatory productions he has sung roles such as Nardo (La finta giardiniera), Frank (Die Fledermaus), the Innkeeper in Humperdinck’s Königskinder and, most recently, Amantio di Nicolao (Gianni Schicchi). In 2024 he performed with the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock under Marcus Bosch at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.

Alongside his operatic activities he is deeply committed to concert and recital repertory.

He has participated in masterclasses with artists such as Elly Ameling, Thomas Allen, David Bösch, Brigitte Fassbaender, Angela Denoke, Julius Drake, Malcolm Martineau, Christoph and Julian Prégardien, Marek Rzepka and Dorothea Röschmann.

He has also received important artistic inspiration through collaborations with conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Martin Brauß, Carlo Benedetto Cimento, Paul Weigold and Yura Yang and with directors including Roman Hovenbitzer, Thomas Mittmann and Mascha Pörzgen.