Markus Johannes Langer was born in Erlangen in 1971. He studied organ with Prof. Hedwig Bilgram as a guest student at the University of Music and Theatre Munich whilst he was still at school. He then commenced his studies of “Protestant Sacred Music” at the same institute in 1992, which he completed with the highest German degree in sacred music (A-Examen) in 1997. In 1997, he commenced a postgraduate degree under Prof. Michael Gläser, majoring in Choral Conducting. He graduated in 1999 with the distinction “Meisterklassendiplom”.

Among the advancement awards and prizes that he won, special acknowledgement should be given to the scholarship from the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation, which he received in 1993, and the 1^st Advancement Award for Young Artists from the town of Coburg, which he received in 1996. He received the Culture Award of the Hanseatic City of Rostock from the Lord Mayor in 2009 in recognition of his services to sacred music. In the same year, Markus Langer and the St. Johannis Kantorei received the culture award of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern from the Minister-President. In appreciation of his outstanding services for sacred music in the Protestant Lutheran State Church of Mecklenburg, the church leadership awarded him the title of Kirchenmusikdirektor (sacred music director) in December 2009. In June 2014, the University of Rostock’s Faculty of Theology awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his special services to theology and the church. Markus Langer was honoured with an entry into the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock’s Book of Honour in September 2021 for his more than 20 years of outstanding services to the national and international cultural image of the Hanseatic and University City.

Langer was cantor at the Laudate Church Munich until 1999, where he developed a broad repertoire across the choirs and he was artistic director of Munich’s Concert Choir, with which he also performed outside of Munich, for example in the Berlin Cathedral.

As successor to KMD Prof. Hartwig Eschenburg, Markus Langer has been cantor at the St. Johannis Church in Rostock since 1 February 2000, where he leads one of northern Germany’s largest sets of choirs (with around 400 active members) that perform in front of public audiences approximately 50 times a year.

At the start of summer semester 2000, Langer also took on a position as lecturer for the subjects Choral Conducting and Oratorio Interpretation at the Rostock University of Music and Drama. Hmt Rostock awarded Langer an honorary professorship at the start of summer semester 2008.

CD and radio recordings document his broad artistic profile. He regularly collaborates with artists such as Bogna Bartosz, Sylvia Schwartz, Kai Wessel, Thomas Quasthoff, Peter Kooy, the KING’S SINGERS and the HILLIARD ENSEMBLE.