Matthias Winckhler, born in Munich, began his musical training at the Bavarian Singakademie and subsequently studied at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Andreas Macco and in the Lied class of Wolfgang Holzmair. He received further impulses from Matthias Goerne, Markus Hinterhäuser, Graham Johnson, Rudolf Piernay, Peter Schreier, Bo Skovhus and Breda Zakotnik. In summer 2015 he took part in the Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival. At the International Mozart Competition Salzburg 2014 he received the First Prize as well as the Special Prize of the Mozarteum Foundation. He also won prizes at the International Bach Competition Leipzig 2012, the National Singing Competition 2010 in Berlin and the International Schubert Competition Dortmund 2014.
He recently performed as Don Fernando in Beethoven's "Fidelio" under Jaap van Zweden at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and at the Wolkenturm in Grafenegg. Further highlights were "L'Enfance du Christ" by Hector Berlioz under Hans-Christoph Rademann with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" with the Münchner Bachchor under Hansjörg Albrecht.
Concert invitations regularly take Matthias Winckhler to renowned festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Kissinger Sommer, the Bachfest Leipzig, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Thuringian Bach Weeks and the Mozart Week in Salzburg. He has worked with conductors such as Howard Arman, Peter Dijkstra, Hans Graf, Matthew Halls, Pablo Heras-Casado, René Jacobs, Risto Joost, Andrew Manze, Riccardo Minasi, Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki, Robin Ticciati and Jos van Veldhoven and has performed with ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Bach Collegium Japan, the Camerata Salzburg, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the MDR-Sinfonieorchester, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and the Wiener Philharmoniker.
From 2015 to 2018 he was an ensemble member of the Staatsoper Hannover, where his roles included Count Almaviva ("Le nozze di Figaro"), Papageno ("Die Zauberflöte"), Albert ("Werther"), Belcore ("L'elisir d'amore") and Tom ("The English Cat").
A special focus in his musical work is the art song. In recitals he performs with Marcelo Amaral, Bernadette Bartos, Verena Metzger, Akemi Murakami and Jan Philip Schulze. In the field of contemporary music, he has worked with composers Nikolaus Brass, Friedrich Cerha, Manfred Trojahn and Gerhard Wimberger, among others, and has participated in numerous world premieres.