Peter Jürgen-Schmidt is a reliable tenor, well-known on German stages. He received his training at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Weimar. For 13 years beginning in 1968 he was on the roster of the National Theater of Weimar. He debuted in Verdi's Oberto, also singing roles such as Don José in Carmen, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos and Hoffmann in The Tales of Hoffman, Laca in Jenufa, Pedro in Teifland, Herod in Salome, and Dessau's Die Verurteilung des Lukullus. He joined the Berlin State Opera in 1981 and also regularly sang with the Dresden Opera and Komische Oper Berlin. He is well known for his role of Columbus II in Milhaud's Christopher Columbus.