Austrian bass-baritone Alexander Grassauer studied with Sigrid Rennert before continuing his training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Professor Karlheinz Hanser and in Florian Boesch's renowned Lied class. Further artistic guidance came from Ramón Vargas, Robert Holl, and Kammersängerin Elīna Garanča.
A prizewinner of numerous international competitions, he won the Birgit Nilsson Prize at Operalia 2025, the SWR Emmerich Smola Prize, the International Hugo Wolf and Johannes Brahms Competition, the Ferruccio Tagliavini Competition, and the Hariclea Darclée International Voice Competition.
From 2020 to 2024, Grassauer was a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, where he sang roles including Leporello, Don Basilio, and Alidoro. Recent engagements have taken him to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Semperoper Dresden, and the Bayreuth Festival, where he appeared as Hermann Ortel (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Melot (Tristan und Isolde), and Donner (Das Rheingold) under Daniele Gatti, Semyon Bychkov, and Christian Thielemann.
Highlights of the 2026/27 season include his Vienna State Opera debut as Frank (Die Fledermaus), Don Fernando in a new production of Beethoven's Leonore at Theater an der Wien, and his role debut as Gunther (Götterdämmerung) at the Bavarian State Opera.
Equally active on the concert stage, Grassauer has performed with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic under conductors including Andris Nelsons, Fabio Luisi, Daniel Harding, Joana Mallwitz, Riccardo Muti, and Semyon Bychkov. Lied recital remains a central focus of his artistic work.