Olaf Bär lives in his hometown of Dresden where he continues to guest regularly at the city's historic Semperoper.  As the winner of the inaugural Walther Grüner Lieder Competition, Olaf Bär was launched on an international career and has long been regarded as one of the foremost Lieder interpreters of his generation. 

It was in 1985 when Olaf Bär began a long association with EMI which produced a discography encompassing most of the core Lieder repertoire: Schumann's Dichterliebe, op 48 and Liederkreis, op 39, Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin (Gramophone Award winner), Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang, Wolf's Mörike Lieder, Schumann's Kernerlieder op 35 and Liederkreis op 24, all with the late Geoffrey Parsons.  His Lieder collections also include Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven, Wolf's Spanisches and Italienisches Liederbuch, Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer and Schumann's Spanische Liebeslieder, Lieder, Romanzen und Balladen and Myrthen Lieder. 

Olaf Bär lives in his hometown of Dresden where he continues to guest regularly at the city's historic Semperoper.  As the winner of the inaugural Walther Grüner Lieder Competition, Olaf Bär was launched on an international career and has long been regarded as one of the foremost Lieder interpreters of his generation. 

It was in 1985 when Olaf Bär began a long association with EMI which produced a discography encompassing most of the core Lieder repertoire: Schumann's Dichterliebe, op 48 and Liederkreis, op 39, Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin (Gramophone Award winner), Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang, Wolf's Mörike Lieder, Schumann's Kernerlieder op 35 and Liederkreis op 24, all with the late Geoffrey Parsons.  His Lieder collections also include Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven, Wolf's Spanisches and Italienisches Liederbuch, Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer and Schumann's Spanische Liebeslieder, Lieder, Romanzen und Balladen and Myrthen Lieder. 

Other recordings in this artist's extensive discography include Papageno/Die Zauberflöte (Philips), Falke/Die Fledermaus (Philips), Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Gardiner/DG Archiv) and St Matthew Passion (Christus - Solti/Decca and the Arias - Gardiner/DG Archiv), Olivier/Capriccio (Schirmer/Decca), Haydn's Creation (Adam - Muti/Sony), Brahms Requiem (Norrington/EMI), both the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems (EMI), Speaker/Die Zauberflöte (Norrington/EMI), Bach Cantatas with the SCO (Schreier/Philips), Guglielmo/Cosi fan tutte (Solti/Decca) and Allazim/Zaide (Goodwin/Harmonia Mundi USA). Most recently, he featured as Kurwenal in the current EMI release of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Antonio Pappano, with Placido Domingo in the title role

Olaf Bär appears worldwide in recital and has made several major tours of Australia, Israel, Japan and America.  He made his Covent Garden recital debut in 1992 and is one of the most frequent guests in London's esteemed Wigmore Hall.  Equally at home in the concert hall, Bär's concert repertoire ranges from the baroque to the contemporary including Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Bach St Matthew Passion, Britten's War Requiem and Haydn's Creation.  He appears with many of the world's finest orchestras and conductors with highlights from recent seasons including Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium with the New York Philharmonic, Haydn's Creation with the Vienna Philharmonic/Muti and Britten's War Requiem in Munich with Maazel.

Although Olaf Bär's reputation was originally established as a concert and Lieder singer, he has a large and varied operatic repertoire that currently includes roles by Wagner (Wolfram, Gunther, Donner, Kurwenal), Weber (Lysiart), Mozart (Count, Don Alfonso, Allazim, Sprecher), Richard Strauss (Count/Olivier, Faninal, Musikmeister) and Korngold (Fritz/Franz). Olaf Bär has performed at Covent Garden (Harlekin and Papageno), La Scala (Papageno), Vienna State Opera (Harlekin and Olivier), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Papageno), Opera National de Paris (Musikmeister and Sprecher) and at the Festivals of Salzburg (Dr Falke), Bayreuth (Gunther and Donner) Aix-en-Provence (Harlekin and Guglielmo), Vienna (Dr Falke and Schubert's Alfonso und Estrella) and Glyndebourne (Harlekin and Don Giovanni).  His portrayal of Mozart's Count has been seen in Rome and Zürich, with Sir Colin Davis in Dresden, with Harnoncourt in Amsterdam as well as at Ongaku-Juku Opera Project in Japan, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.