A great artist and singing teacher. He studied voice, piano and conducting in Germany, England and New York as well as working on the French repertoire under Pierre Bernac's guidance.
With an impressive international career to his credit, in 1974 he began teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and in 1991 was appointed professor of singing at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim, Germany.
He conducts regular master classes all over the world, including summer courses at the Steans Institute of the Ravinia Festival (United States), the Internationale Bachakademie in Stuttgart, a number of master classes at Royaumont and CNSM in Paris. He has also taught at the Juilliard School's vocal arts department in New York and in training programmes for young singers at the Frankfurt Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera and Metropolitan Opera. As of 2008 he has been an official consultant of the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. In recent years he has also worked as a teacher in Estonia and Russia and since 2007 has taught Internationale Sommerakademie courses at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
His students include many prize-winners of vocal competitions and singers of great international renown, to mention just two names: Bryn Terfel and Kate Royal.
Rudolf Piernay is a judge of international competitions, including the Robert Schumann International Competition in Zwickau and the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Competition in Paris.
