“a promising countertenor, his falsetto clean, flexible and true.”
Young German-British countertenor Jean-Max Lattemann appears equally on the opera and concert stage and is unanimously praised by critics for his interpretations and vocal expressiveness. His repertoire ranges from early baroque to modern and contemporary music, having worked with conductors such as Robert Howarth, Richard Hetherington, Eamonn Dougan, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Matthias Jung and Franz Brochhagen.
The 2025/26 sees Jean-Max’s return to London’s Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival to premiere the role of The King in Edward Lambert’s new chamber opera THE RAPTURE and concerts in Germany with Mozart’s REQUIEM and Bach’s CHRISTMAS ORATORIO. Previous seasons included his debut as Prinz Orlofsky in DIE FLEDERMAUS with St Paul’s Opera in London, as well as his concert debut in Vienna with Beethoven’s MASS IN C MAJOR.
Further highlights were his debuts at the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden as Bacchus / Evanthes in Johann Georg August Conradi’s redisovered baroque opera ARIADNE, at the Théâtre National Mohammed V in Rabat in Morocco as Nerillo in Francesco Cavalli’s L’ORMINDO - the first time this opera was performed in the country of its setting and at the Barockfest Darmstadt in Händel’s ISRAEL IN EGYPT. He also visited Dresden, Leipzig, Heidelberg and Wiesbaden in Germany for concerts with Heinrich Schütz’s MUSIKALISCHE EXEQUIEN, Bach’s MASS IN B MINOR and ST MATTHEW PASSION, Homilius’ ST MATTHEW PASSION and Buxtehude’s MEMBRA JESU NOSTRI. Furthermore, he toured England and Wales for song recitals with pianist Dylan Perez.
Highlights of previous seasons include Jean-Max’s Austrian operatic debut at the Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna) in the world premiere of a new chamber opera Durst by award-winning Czech multi-media composer Robert Jíša, which also featured at the Dvorak Festival in Olomouc (CZ) in May 2022, his debuts with Bury Court Opera and at London’s Grimeborn and Tête-à-Tête Opera Festivals and returns to Dartington International Festival.
His operatic repertoire includes the title role in Handel's SERSE, Nerone in AGRIPPINA, Apollo in Mozart's APOLLO ET HYACINTH and Schneiderlein in Wolfgang Mitterer's DAS TAPFERE SCHNEIDERLEIN. In addition, Jean-Max has premiered several operatic roles, including Peregrine in Vahan Salorian's BOYS OF PARADISE and Big Mountain Witch in Noah Mosley’s opera AURORA.
On the concert stage the works of Bach and Händel naturally take an important place, but Jean-Max focusses on rarely performed musical gems too, such as works by Alessandro Scarlatti, Biber, Homilius and Telemann. Together with pianist Dylan Perez he has devised a song recital programme titled “A New Beginning”, which gives an impression of the enormous variety of the countertenor voice - with works by Duparc, Fauré, Dove, Tippet, Schubert, Reimann, Haydn and Mahler.
Contemporary music is another important part of Jean-Max’s work. He has performed at the "Rising Stars" concerts of the City of London Festival, the "GSMD Voiceworks Alumni" series at London’s Wigmore Hall and at the "LSO Platforms" at the Barbican Centre and was awarded the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Award by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2015.
Jean-Max first studied with Hartmut Zabel at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden before moving to London to study with Andrew Watts at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. During his studies he also worked with internationally renowned artists such as Dame Emma Kirkby, Jane Manning (†) and Ludger Rémy (†), and took part in masterclasses with Dorothee Mields, Simone Kermes, Robert Levin and Graham Johnson.
Jean-Max has been generously supported by the Guildhall School Trust, the Eileen Nesfield Cookson Bursary Fund and the Radcliffe Trust.
He is based in London.