Peter Schreier (born 29 July 1935) is a German tenor and conductor.

Schreier was born in Meissen, Saxony, and spent his first years in the small village of Gauernitz, near Meissen, where his father was a teacher, cantor and organist. In June 1945, when Schreier was almost ten years old, and just a few months after the destruction of Dresden, he entered the boarding school of the famous Dresden boys' choir, the Dresdner Kreuzchor (Choir of the Kreuzkirche or Church of the Cross). The choir had just been re-established. The young Peter and the few other choir members and teachers lived in a cellar in the outskirts of Dresden.

The conductor of the Kreuzchor, Rudolf Mauersberger, soon recognized Peter Schreier's great talent. He let him sing many solo alto parts and also created compositions that perfectly fitted Peter's boy voice. Solo recordings of Peter Schreier were made at the time (1948-1951) and are obtainable on compact disc even today.

Schreier was 16 years old when his voice broke, and he became a tenor, as he had passionately wished, because of the several Evangelists - all tenors - in J.S. Bach's Passions and in his Christmas Oratorio. After he had decided to become a professional singer he took lessons, at first privately, then later on at the Dresden Academy of Music. He had enough time to also study choral and orchestral conducting.

Franz Peter Schubert (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁants ˈʃuːbɛɐ̯t]; 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer.

Although he died at the age of 31, Schubert was a prolific composer, having written some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. Appreciation of Schubert's music during his lifetime was limited, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn, among others, discovered and championed his works in the 19th century. Today, Schubert is seen as one of the leading exponents of the early Romantic era in music and he remains one of the most frequently performed composers.

Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part of Alsergrund), Vienna, on 31 January 1797. His father, Franz Theodor Schubert, the son of a Moravian peasant, was a parish schoolmaster; his mother, Elisabeth Vietz, was the daughter of a Silesian master locksmith, and had also been a housemaid for a Viennese family prior to her marriage. Of Franz Theodor's fourteen children (one illegitimate child was born in 1783), nine died in infancy; five survived. Their father was a well-known teacher, and his school in Lichtental, a part of Vienna's 9th district, was well attended. He was not a musician of fame or with formal training, but he taught his son some elements of music.

Wilhelm Müller (October 7, 1794 – September 30, 1827) was a German lyric poet.

Wilhelm Müller was born at Dessau, the son of a tailor. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native town and at the university of Berlin, where he devoted himself to philological and historical studies. In 1813-1814 he took part, as a volunteer in the Prussian army, in the national rising against Napoleon. He participated in the battles of Lützen, Bautzen, Hanau and Kulm. In 1814 he returned to his studies at Berlin. From 1817 to 1819, he visited southern Germany and Italy, and in 1820 published his impressions of the latter in Rom, Römer und Römerinnen. In 1819, he was appointed teacher of classics in the Gelehrtenschule at Dessau, and in 1820 librarian to the ducal library. He remained there the rest of his life.

Müller's earliest lyrics are contained in a volume of poems, Bundesbluten, by several friends, which was published in 1816. That same year he also published Blumenlese aus den Minnesängern (Flowers harvested from the minnesingers). His literary reputation was made by the Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten (2 vols., 1821–1824), and the Lieder der Griechen (1821–1824). The latter collection was Germany's chief tribute of sympathy to the Greeks in their struggle against the Turkish yoke, a theme which inspired many poets of the time. Two volumes of Neugriechische Volkslieder, and Lyrische Reisen und epigrammatische Spaziergänge, followed in 1825 and 1827. Many of his poems imitate the German Volkslied.

August Everding (German pronunciation: [ˈaʊɡʊst ˈeːvɐdɪŋ]) (31 October 1928; Bottrop, Germany – 26 January 1999; Munich) was a German opera director and administrator. He studied at the Universities of Bonn and Munich, where launching his career in the 1950s. He was a member of the Roman Catholic fraternity Katholischer Studentenverein Arminia Bonn, a founder fraternities of the Kartellverband katholischer deutscher Studentenvereine . From 1968 onwards he worked as a director in Hamburg, before moving back to Munich in 1977 to become the General Intendant of the Bayerische Staatsoper. In the following years he also directed in Bayreuth, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Zurich Opera,

His productions were seen in all the major international houses: Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival. the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, La Scala, Milan, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera New York, San Francisco Opera and Opera Australia.

Many of his classic productions are preserved on DVD, including Hänsel und Gretel (1981) (Deutsche Grammophon B000AXSKB8), and Die Zauberflöte (Deutsche Grammophon B000ASAEQW). He was one the founder members of a society of the revolutionary thoughts on theaters and individual thinking and this was reflected in his works.

Theo Adam (born 1 August 1926) is a distinguished German classical bass-baritone who had an active international career in operas, concerts, and recitals from the 1940s through the 1990s. He particularly excelled in portraying roles from the operas of Richard Wagner. On the concert stage, he was a much admired Bach singer and also drew acclaim for his interpretation of the title character of Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah.

Born in Dresden, Adam sang with the Dresdner Kreuzchor as a boy. He studied singing with Rudolf Dietrich between 1946 and 1949. He made his professional opera debut in his native city as the Hermit in Der Freischütz at the Semperoper in 1949. In 1952 he joined the roster of singers at the Berlin State Opera. That same year he made his first appearance at the Bayreuth Festival in a small role. He returned annually to Bayreuth for many years, taking on the role of Heinrich der Vogler in Lohengrin in 1954, Titurel (and one of the Gralsritter) in Parsifal in the same year, Fasolt in Das Rheingold in 1958, and Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen in 1963. He eventually added Amfortas in Parsifal, Hans Sachs and Veit Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and the title role in The Flying Dutchman to his Bayreuth performance credits.