Biography

The native Finn, Arttu Kataja, started his musical training as a nine-year-old by taking oboe lessons. He later studied singing at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and was a scholarship holder of the Martti Talvela Foundation as well as a two-time winner at the International Mozart Contest in Salzburg.

Since 2006, Arttu Kataja is an ensemble member at the Staatsoper in Berlin, where he already worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Asher Fisch, René Jacobs, Philippe Jordan, Andris Nelsons, Sir Simon Rattle, and Omer Meir Wellber. Roles at this house include e.g. Papageno/Die Zauberflöte, Peter/Hansel and Gretel, Bass/King Arthur, Marcello/La Bohème and Musiklehrer/Ariadne auf Naxos.
Guest engagements led him, among others, to the Theater an der Wien, Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile, Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, to Tampere, as well as to the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

Also on the concert stage Mr. Kataja is very active. He sang Count Almaviva in a semi-staged producution on a world tour together with the Freiburger Barockorchester, works by J.S. Bach with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra in Hamburg, Madrid, Bilbao, Lausanne and Beaune, as well as the St John Passion with the Akademie für Alte Musik and the RIAS Kammerchor at the MiTo Festival in Italy, each under the baton of René Jacobs.
Further concert highlights include Handel’s Messiah in the Philharmonie Dresden under Michael Sanderling, works by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach and Haydn’s The Seasons with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and under the musical direction of Hans-Christoph Rademann in Hamburg, Dresden, Stuttgart and Bremen, Ein deutsches Requiem in Bruneck and Brixen, cantatas and Magnificat by J.S. Bach together with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, the RIAS Kammerchor and Rinaldo Alessandrini in Berlin, Fauré’s Requiem with Pablo Pérez and the Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid, as well as Berlioz‘ L’enfance du Christ in Oviedo and Gijón. In his home country he sang concerts together with Camilly Naylung, Marita Viitasalo and under the baton of Sakari Oramo, as well as Don Fernando in a concert performance of Fidelio with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki.        
In 2018/19 engagements at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin include Hippolyte et Aricie under the baton of Sir Simon, Hansel and Gretel/Peter, La traviata, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Daniel Barenboim, as well as Die Zauberflöte/Papageno. Together with René Jacobs he will embody Count Almaviva/Le nozze di Figaro at the International Festival of Music and Dance in Granada and he will take on the role of Rocco/Leonore at the George Enescu Festival Budapest for the first time.
In addition, he can be heard in numerous concerts, singing Beethoven’s Missa solemnis together with Frieder Bernius, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Oslo, as well as Lied recitals in Freiburg and on the occasion of the Schumannfest in Bonn.

Arttu Kataja’s recordings include »St. Matthew Passion« (Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi 2013), »Tristan und Isolde« (RSB, Janowski, Pentatone 2012), »Orlando Paladino« (Jacobs/Petersen/Randle, EuroArts 2010), »Manon« (Barenboim/Netrebko/Villazon, Deutsche Grammophon 2007), Fredrik Pacius’ »Die Loreley« (Sinfonia Lahti, Osmo Vänskä), Aulis Sallinen’s »Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan« (The King Goes Forth to France), Armas Launis’ »Aslak Hetta« (Finnish Radio Symphonic Orchestra, Sakari Oramo).

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