César Gutierrez was born in Bogotá and began his music education at an early age at the Bogota’s Conservatoire. Heunderwent his voice lessons with Leonel Villa at the Luis A. Calvo Folklore Academy.
He began his career as a professional singer, singing together with the Colombian Symphony Orchestra and the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, and as a recitalist, performing in the most important venues in Colombia,.
After he began his professional career, the Arte de la Música Foundation granted him a scholarship, making his travel to Europe possible, where, by means of his participation in the well-known performance courses of the Spanish repertoire in Santiago de Compostela,being awarded the Andres Segovia Prize.
Subsequently, in Vienna, he continued advanced voice studies at the Superior Music and Dramatic Arts School under the tutorship of mezzo-soprano Margarita Lilova, obtaining a Master’s Degree in Opera with Professor Curt Malm and in Lied and Oratorium with ProfessorsCurt Equiluz and Charles Spencer.
He performed his official debut in Europe with Verdi, singing Macduff in “Macbeth,” in Bergen (Norway).
Since then, César Gutierrez has performed in the main opera theaters in the Old Continent and in concert halls around the world, such as the Kammeroper in Vienna, the Opéra de la Bastille in Paris, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Ópera in Rome, the Staatsoper Berlin, the Volksoper and Staatsoper in Vienna, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Staatsoper in Stuttgartand in cities such as Montecarlo, Leipzig, Nürnberg, Munich and Helsinki, as well as in Tokyo and in several countries in South America, including Río de Janeiro, Montevideo, Lima and Bogotá.
His repertoire includes more than 35 operas, where the following are highlighted:A. Piazzolla:Maria de Buenos Aires (El Payador), A. Vives:Doña Francisquita (Fernando), B. Martinu: The Greek Passion (Nikolio), Ch. Gounoud: Romeo et Juliette (Romeo)and Faust (Faust), F. Lehar:Die Lustige Witwe (Camille de Rosillon),G. Bizet:Les Pêcheurs De Perles (Nadir), Carmen (Don José),G. Donizetti: Don Pasquale (Ernesto),L’elisir d´Amore (Nemorino), Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo/Arturo), La Favorita (Fernando), Maria Stuarda (Roberto, Count of Leicester), Roberto Devereux (Roberto),G. PucciniLa Boheme (Rodolfo), Gianni Schicchi (Rinuccio), Tosca (Cavaradossi), Madama Butterfly (Pinkerton),G. Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Il Conte d’Almaviva), L’ Italiana in Algeri (Lindoro), Otello (Rodrigo),G. Verdi:La Traviata (Alfredo) Rigoletto (Il Duca di Mantova) Falstaff (Fenton), Macbeth (Macduff), Don Carlo (Don Carlo)Georg Friedrich Händel:Acis & Galatea (Damon), J. Massenet:Werther (Werther), Manon (Des Grieux)R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (Der Sänger) R. Wagner:Der Fliegende Holländer (Der Steuermann), Tannhäuser (Walther v. der Vogelweide)V. Bellini:I Capuleti ei Montecchi (Tebaldo), I Puritani (Arturo), La Sonnambula (Elvino), Norma(Pollione) W. Amadeus Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Don Basilio/Curzio), Die Zauberflöte (Tamino), Don Giovanni (Don Ottavio), Cosi fan Tutte (Ferrando).
His career as a performer of recitals and in the symphonic and oratorium genders is equally important, with performances in prestigious music halls, appearing at the Oslo Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Viena, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Megaro Musikis in Ahtens and the Beethoven Halle in Bonn, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, in addition to numerous auditoriums in the United States, Japan and the Middle East, as well as his participation in renowned music festivals, such as the one in Bregenz (Bregenzer Festspiele), Cartagena (Cartagena International Music Festival) and Rheingau (Rheingau Music Festival).
He has also sung under the conduction of prominent orchestra directors, such as Ricardo Muti, Armin Jordan, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Ulf Schirmer, Gidon Kremer and Gustavo Dudamel,among others. Among the stage directors, Michael Hampe,Hugo de Ana, Philippe Arlaudand Jorge Lavellican be cited.
Gutierrez has made several recordings, and can be heard on CD in the recording of Bohuslav Martinu’s opera, The Greek Passion, at the Bregenz Summer International Festival, for the Austrian Radio and Television. He has also recorded Lucia di Lammermoor, together with Edita Gruberova, for the Nightingale Classicsrecords and the songs of Giuseppe Verdi, together with Diana Damrau, for theTelosrecords.
He is the winner of the first prize in the “Hilde Zadek” international song contest in Passau (Germany), as well as the First Grand Prize and Gold Medal in the “María Callas” International Song Contest in Athens (Greece).
