As MATTEO in “Arabella” he enjoyed success at the Leipzig Opera House and as FENTON in Nicolai’s “Die Lustige Weiber von Windsor” at the Dessau Theatre. He sang in Nono`s “Prometeo” under the musical direction of Ingo Metzmacher at the Ruhr-Triennale Bochum and the opera houses of Amsterdam and Zurich. Befor, he made his debut as the DANCE MASTER in “Ariadne auf Naxos” at the Munich State Opera.

His concert engagements brought him throughout Europe; he has sung at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the Reims Cathedral, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Churches of St. Michaelis and St. Nikolai in Hamburg, the Stuttgart Liederhalle, the Dresden Frauenkirche and the Cologne Cathedral. He has sung Bruckner’s “Te Deum” at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, César Franck’s “Les Béatitudes” on the occasion of the composer’s 200th anniversary at the Cathedral of Liège in the composer’s native town. Verdi’s “requiem” at the Cologne Philharmonic and Mendelssohn’s “The First Walpurgis Night/Hymn of Praise” , The “Passion of St. Matthew” in Düsseldorf, working with orchestras such as L'arpa festante and the Cologne Concerto under conductors such as Stewart Bedford, Helmut Rilling and Marcus Creed. Numerous radio- and CD recordings were released.
In 2024 he sang for the first time in concerts in Taiwan and in 2025 he can be heard at the Cologne Philharmonic in works of Britten.

He returned in the title part of Bernstein’s CANDIDE to the Dresden State Operetta, where he was a member of the ensemble between 2015 and 2018, portraying such roles as TAMINO, HANS in “The Bartered Bride”, CAMILLE DE ROSILLON in “Die Lustige Witwe”, ORPHEUS in “Orpheus in der Unterwelt”, GWIDON in “Tsar Saltan” or EISENSTEIN in “Die Fledermaus”.

Since the season 2018/19 Markus Francke is the first tenor at the Ulm Theatre, where he made his successful debuts as PARSIFAL, ERIK, BACCHUS, FLORESTAN and BORIS in Katja Kabanova as well as TURIDDU, CAVARADOSSI, Mozart’s TITUS, IL DUCA DI MANTOVA, EDGARDO DI RAVENSWOOD and ERIK in “Der Fliegende Holländer”. He also sang operetta heroes in such parts as OCTAVIO in Lehár’s “Giuditta”, EDWIN in “Die Csárdásfürstin”, the FIRST STRANGER and EISENSTEIN, a role in which he could also be seen in the season 2023/24 at the Meiningen State Theatre. In the French repertoire his interpretation of the title part in the posthume world premiere of Tournemires’ “La Légende de TRISTAN” was internationally noticed, just as his interpretation of the title role in “Les Contes d’HOFFMANN”.

Further guest engagements brought him to the Kassel State Theatre, the Würzburg Theatre, the Gelsenkirchen Theatre and the Klagenfurt Theatre. At the Sondershausen Castle Festival he sang his first DON JOSÉ.

Markus Francke was born in Freiburg. At the age of eight, he began piano lessons and made his first experiences on an operatic stage at the Freiburg City Theatre in Benjamin Britten’s “A Summer Night's Dream”. Markus Francke studied musicology , choral conducting and singing at the Cologne Academy for Music and Dance. He took master classes with Berthold Schmid, Diane Forlano, Stewart Emerson and Francisco Araiza.