The outstanding young Danish baritone Bo Skovhus has been winning acclaim on the international opera, concert and recital circuit ever since his sensational debut in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Vienna Volksoper in 1988. After singing the Count in the San Francisco Opera's Le nozze di Figaro and Danilo in Die lustige Witwe in Paris, Skovhus starred in 1998 in new productions of Britten's Billy Budd at the Houston Grand Opera and Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau at the Vienna State Opera, as well as appearing as soloist in a concert tour of Switzerland with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In September 1998, he made a thrilling debut as Wozzeck in Peter Konwitschny's spectacular new production at the Hamburg Opera, followed in December by his first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera as Eisenstein in a new production of Die Fledermaus.

The singer's exclusive relationship with Sony Classical has produced his first operatic recording for the label, released in the autumn of 1998, featuring scenes and arias from the operas Billy Budd, Hamlet, Tannhäuser, Eugene Onegin, Don Carlos, Faust, Die tote Stadt, Pique Dame and the rarely heard baritone version of Werther, with James Conlon conducting the English National Opera Orchestra (SK 60035). For Sony Classical Skovhus has already recorded a well-received disc of Eichendorff lieder by Wolf and Korngold (SK 57969) and The Heart of the Poet (SK 62372), featuring lieder of Robert and Clara Schumann, as well as two of Schubert's song cycles, Schwanengesang (SK 66385) and Die schöne Müllerin (SK 63075), all with pianist Helmut Deutsch. Die schöne Müllerin was awarded the 1998 Deutscher schallplattenpreis Echo Klassik for the best lieder recording.

Most recently he recorded Richard Blackford's Mirror of Perfection (SK 60285) with Ying Huang and Bournemouth Sinfonietta and Symphony Chorus (available only in some countries). His next album on the label, scheduled for release in January 2000, is a recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (SK 60646), on which he is joined by Plácido Domingo, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Skovhus devotes a large part of his time to recitals, and his New York recital at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in the winter of 1997 reconfirmed his reputation as one of the premier lieder singers of his generation. He has appeared at many major music festivals, including Bad Kissingen, Edinburgh, Kilkenny, Verbier, Bergen, Ravinia, Tanglewood, the Schubertiade Feldkirch, Salzburg and the Vienna Festwochen. In addition, Skovhus has performed in London, Hamburg, Stockholm, Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Vienna, Graz, Paris, Basel, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Madrid, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco and Milan's La Scala.

Viennese audiences "adopted" Skovhus as one of their favourites after his spectacular 1988 operatic debut there, and he appears there frequently, both at the Vienna Volksoper and at the Vienna State Opera. In addition to Die schweigsame Frau, Vienna State Opera audiences in the spring of 1998 heard Skovhus as the Count in Le nozze di Figaro and in the title role of Don Giovanni. New roles with the company include Danilo in Die lustige Witwe, in the first production there ever, and the title role in Billy Budd.

In opera Skovhus has sung the title role in Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Schönbrunn Festival, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the 1995 Edinburgh Festival and the Hamburg State Opera. His other Mozart roles include the Count in Le nozze di Figaro in the Bavarian State Opera production at the 1994 Vienna Festival with Claudio Abbado conducting, as well as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in new productions at the Hamburg State Opera and, under Riccardo Muti's direction, in Vienna and at the Ravenna Festival. Skovhus has sung Olivier in Strauss' Capriccio in Catania and at the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. In the title role in Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, he has appeared in both concert and stage productions at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Vienna Volksoper and the Royal Opera Copenhagen. He has also sung the title roles in new productions of Billy Budd and Eugene Onegin in Cologne; Wolfram in Tannhäuser at the Vienna State Opera; Graf von Eberbach in Der Wildschütz in a new production at the Hamburg State Opera; Peter I in Zar und Zimmerman and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus in new productions in Vienna and Hamburg; Dallapiccola's Il prigoniero at the 1995 Bregenz Festival; and Raimond in Ottmar Schoeck's Venus at the Internationale Musikfestwochen in Lucerne. More recently, he sang the title role in Don Giovanni in Houston and the Count in Le nozze di Figaro at the Met. In Copenhagen he sang in Frank Martin's Jedermannmonologe.

In concert Skovhus has sung Orff's Carmina Burana in Vienna, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, as well as with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa; Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in Copenhagen and Zurich; Mendelssohn's Walpurgisnacht under Christoph von Dohnányi at the 1992 Salzburg Festival; Britten's War Requiem with conductors John Eliot Gardiner and Armin Jordan; Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem in Vienna, at the 1996 Tanglewood Festival, and in Hamburg, Munich and London; Schumann's Scenes from Faust at the 1994 Edinburgh Festival and Tanglewood; Zemlinsky's Lyrische Symphonie in Hamburg, Zurich, Cologne and Tokyo; Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn in Paris, at the 1995 Edinburgh Festival and with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival; Hindemith's Requiem, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch; Mendelssohn's Elijah in Munich and Frankfurt; Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero at the Bregenz Festival; Schubert Lieder with orchestral accompaniment at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York; Ture Rangström's Kung Erik's Visor with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Geneva, Lausanne, Berne and Zurich; and Mahler's Frühe Lieder, as orchestrated by Luciano Berio, at La Scala. More recently he sang Strauss' orchestral songs Hymnus, Pilgers Morgenlied and Nächtlicher Gang in Amsterdam and in Cleveland.

In 1998 on the concert stage, Skovhus performed selections from Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch at the Edinburgh Festival and in Stockholm, with more concerts to follow at the Helsinki Festival, in Barcelona and Vienna. Following his recording for Sony Classical of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, he performed the work at the Festival of Fénétrange and in Paris.

Born in Ikast, Denmark, Bo Skovhus studied at the Music College of Aarhus, at the Royal Academy for Opera of Copenhagen and in New York.