Dominique Horwitz was born in 1957 in Paris, where he grew up. In 1971 his family moved to Berlin where he attended a Franco-German grammar school. Having been recommended by a friend, he gave his first TV appearance when he was nineteen years old. Only shortly after he made his debut on the big screen in the role of Leo Singer in Peter Lilienthal’s award-winning film ‘David’.

In 1978, Horwitz had a one-year cabaret-interlude at the Berliner CaDeWe (Cabaret des Westens) followed by a contract at the Tübinger Zimmertheater from 1979 to 1983. In 1985, he was under contract at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich and from 1985 to 1988 he was signed at the Hamburger Thalia Theater.

Shooting ‘Der große Bellheim’ with Dieter Wedel brought him back to the world of film. In 1993 he had his international breakthrough playing the title role in Josef Vilsmaier’s ‘Stalingrad’. Since then he has been admired in many film and TV productions but nevertheless remained true to the stage. Amongst other roles, he has played in ‘The Black Rider’ directed by Robert Wilson, in the ‘Dreigroschenoper’ directed by Katharina Thalbach and in Harold Pinter’s ‘Moonlight’ directed by Peter Zadek. In autumn 2008, he played the role of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in Doug Wright’s “I am my own wife” at the Renaissance Theater Berlin. In Spring 2023 Dominique will debut as ‘Tevje’ in the musical ‘Anataveka’ at Volksoper Wien.

Having grown up with Jaques Brel’s chansons, Dominique Horwitz decided in 1984 to arrange and present his own show with selected songs from the great chansonnier – a success that was rewarded with reviews saying that he did better than Brel himself. In spring 2017, "Horwitz sings Brel" could be experienced for the first time at the Vienna Musikverein; since autumn 2021, a version for small orchestra has expanded the already existing arrangements for large orchestra as well as for six-person band.

Horwitz certainly remains a very welcome guest on the musical-literary scene: be it a recital of Brecht songs, Weill’s ‘Dreigroschenoper’, be it Stravinsky’s ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ or Beethoven’s ‘Egmont’, Horwitz sings, plays and interprets the different characters with an incomparable intensity.
Dominique Horwitz recently worked together with conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim (Stravinsky’s ‘Soldier’s Tale), Christoph Eschenbach (Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’) and Isabelle Faust. He has been invited to important festivals and venues such as Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival or Wigmore Hall.

In 2012, he gave his debut as opera director with Weber‘s ‘Der Freischütz’ at the opera in Erfurt, and in 2019, he directed Strauss’ ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg. As an author, Dominique gave his debut in 2015 publishing ‘Tod in Weimar’, a detective story located in his hometown, followed by the novel ‘Chanson d’Amour’, published in 2018.
In 1992, Horwitz received the ‘Golden Lion’ award for Best Actor and in 2002, he was awarded the Mephisto Award for his Brel chansons programme.

2023/2024