Biography
Gábor Birta has been living under the spell of music since his age of six. He played the cello for more than ten years and successfully took part in various competitions.
He won the first prize as the best cellist at the String Competition of Heves in 1993, 1996 and 1999 though very soon he met a new challenge when his great talent for singing was eventually revealed and made his dedication to operas and bel canto evident.
He has always been extremely proud of being tutored by Júlia Hamari the world-famous opera singer. He could graduate at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Stuttgart under the auspices of this gifted singer. As Gábor recalls "I was brought up by my parents but I was brought up as a singer by Júlia Hamari". Gábor appeared in numerous pieces at the very beginning of his studies abroad. He first performed the role of Orlofsky in the operetta „Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss. He was the leading man character in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas singing this part as a countertenor for the first time in the world – though this was originally written for a baritone voice. He acted as Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, as David in Handel's oratorio Saul to mention just the most outstanding performances of his career. Despite his young age he has made guest appearances in other parts of Germany as well as in Switzerland. His repertoire, which includes arias and songs alike, is considerably unique: long-forgotten rarities from the baroque era and Rossini's breeches roles from the romanticism.
In 2009 Gábor made his debut in Haendel’s comic opera Xerxes an exceptional performance, since he has been the very first countertenor singer ever on the stage of the Hungarian State Opera House. Gaining the appreciation of both the audience and the critics he has become the most noted representative of his special voice in Hungary.
As a rare and mostly unique performer singing the high C3, he rightly deserves the range of 'mezzo-countertenor'.
His main ambition is to promote the traditions of the baroque music and to gain ground and authenticity to this spiritual art of singing through mixing other means of performances and various genres as well. While experimenting with this mixture his first solo evening
„The Haendel Legend” was born and he is planning to perform further ones.
In March 2010 he won the third place and several special prizes at the II. International Haendel Singing Competition (photos in the gallery). From december 2010 he is proud member of the Hungarian Haendel Society.