Biography

Finnish artist Arttu Kataja embarked on his musical journey at the age of nine,  when he took his first oboe lessons. Later, he pursued vocal studies at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he earned recognition as a scholaraship holder of the Martti Talvela Foundation and achieved distinction as a two-time laureate at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg.

Since 2006, Arttu Kataja has been a permanent member of the  soloists ensemble at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, where he has taken on the roles including Papageno in "The Magic Flute," Guglielmo in "Così fan tutte," Peter Besenbinder in "Hansel and Gretel," Bass in "King Arthur," Marcello in "La Bohème," Music Teacher in "Ariadne auf Naxos," Kuligin in "Katya Kabanova," and Lucifero in "Il primo Omicidio." He has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Asher Fisch, René Jacobs, Philippe Jordan, Andris Nelsons, Sir Simon Rattle and Omer Meir Wellber. Guest engagemnts have taken him to places such as the Theater an der Wien, Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile, Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, to Tampere, Savonlinna Opera Festival and Festival de Musique de Strasbourg.

Arttu Kataja is a sought-after concert and songs singer. In 2020, together with pianist Pauliina Tukiainen, he released a highly acclaimed song album entitled "Serious Songs", under the Alba Records label, featuring works by Sibelius, Brahms, Schumann, and Toivo Kuula. He regularly performs this program and other lieder programms.

Under the baton of René Jacobs and with the Freiburger Barockorchester, he embarked on a world tour as Count Almaviva in a semi-concert version of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro". He also collaborated with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra performing J.S.Bach works in cities such as Hamburg, Madrid, Bilbao, Lausanne and Beaune. His highly acclaimed performances include the St. John Passion with the Akademie für Alte Musik and the RIAS Kammerchor at the MiTo Festival in Italy.

Other concert highlights included Handel's Messiah conducted by Michael Sanderling at the Dresden Philharmonic, works by J.S. Bach and C.P.E. Bach as well as Haydn's The Seasons with the International Bach Academy Stuttgart and its principal conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann in Hamburg, Dresden, Stuttgart and Bremen, Brahms Requiem in Bruneck and Brixen with the Streicherakademie Bozen, Cantatas and Magnificat by J.S. Bach with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor under Rinaldo Alessandrini in Berlin, Fauré's Requiem with Victor Pablo Pérez and the Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid and Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ in Oviedo and Gijón. In his native Finland, Arttu Kataja has appeared in numerous concerts with Camilla Nylund, Marita Viitasalo and under the baton of Sakari Oramo, among others, and also performed as Don Fernando in a concert performance of Fidelio with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki.

In 2020, his engagements included projects with the Hamburger Symphoniker for Fauré's Requiem*, Haydn's "The Creation" with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover under Risto Joost*, as well as Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 in Jena. He also made a guest appearance as Germont in La Traviata at the Savonlinna Opera Festival* and sang the Brahms Requiem under Frieder Bernius at the Liederhalle Stuttgart*. In 2021, he returned with anticipation to the Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias for the role of Guglielmo in "Così fan tutte" alongside René Jacobs and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. He collaborated with the Netherlands Bach Scoiety for a recording of the St. John Passion conducted by René Jacobs, as well as participated in a video production of J.Haydn's Stabat Mater with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, which was broadcast live by Müpa Budapest during the Bartók Spring International Arts Weeks.

In 2021/22 Arttu Kataja performed Sibelius' Kullervo in Lahti as part of Sibelius Festival under the baton of Dalia Stasevska and the Sinfonia Lahti, and Schubert's Mass in A flat major under Frieder Bernius in the Stuttgart Liederhalle and the Brixen Cathedral.
He has also performed Sibelius' Kullervo in Utrecht and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with the Netherlands Radio Filharmonisch Orkest under James Gaffigan, and has performed Schubert's Orchester Liedern with Aarhus Symfoniorkester  under the baton of Hartmut Haenchen.
He sang in the world premiere of Peter Eötvös' opera ballad "Sleepless," a production that also brought him to the Grand Théâtre Genève in the spring of 2022 and which was later named  the" World Premiere of the Year" by the critics of Opernwelt magazine.
He returned to productions like "Hippolyte et Aricie" under Sir Simon Rattle, as well as performances in "Hansel and Gretel," "The Magic Flute," "Ariadne auf Naxos," and "La Fanciulla del West."He also presented works from his song CD "Serious Songs" alongside pianist Pauliina Tukiainen in the Apollosaal of the Staatsoper Berlin. He also sang Papageno in "The Magic Flute" at the Tampere Opera under the music direction of Risto Joost.

The 2022/23 season marked his return to the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Helsinki Festival. He participated in the Anima Mundi Festival in Pisa and performed Beethoven's Missa Solemnis together with the NDR Radiophilharmonie and Andrew Manze as conducting. He sang in  Brahms' Requiem under Frieder Bernius at the Musikpodium Stuttgart, followed by concerts with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra in Helsinki and Budapest with F. Schubert's "Alfonso and Estrella." He also made his debut performing Handel's Messiah at the Zürcher Sing-Akademie with Florian Helgath and the Orchester La Scintilla. In 2023, he performed Bach's St. Matthew Passion undrer musical direction of Nicholas Collon with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki and sang A. Schnittke's Faust Cantata with the Hamburger Symphoniker under the baton of Andris Poga at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

At the Staatsoper Berlin, he took on leading roles, including the title role in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly," and role of Biterolf in "Tannhäuser" under Sebastian Weigle. He also sabf in the premiere of R. Strauss' "Daphne" under the musical direction of Thomas Guggeis and the direction of Romeo Castelluccii.

The upcoming 2023/24 season will feature: concerts with Frieder Bernius, the Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, including Louis Spohr's "Passion Oratorio" with its subsequent recording;  Beethoven's "Mass in C Major" once again with Streicherakademie Bozen in Bruneck and Brixen, followed by the St. Matthew Passion with the Noord Nederlands Orkest under the baton of Chief Conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen. The aritst will conclude the  season with Berlioz's "La damnation de Faust" In Lisbon with the Coro e Orquestra Gulbenkian under the baton of their musical director Hannu Lintu.

On the opera stage, his highly anticipated role debut as Germont in "La Traviata" at the Tampere Opera in Finland, conducted by Giuseppe Mentuccia and directed by Eike Gramss, is on the horizon. At the Staatsoper Berlin, he will perform under Simone Young and the direction of Claus Guth in a new production of Modest Mussorgsky's "Khovanshchina," as well as in the revivals of "The Magic Flute," "Daphne" under Thomas Guggeis, "La Fanciulla del West," again under Simone Young, and as Sharpless in
" Madama Butterfly" under Giancarlo Andretta.

Arttu Kataja's recordings encompass:

"Manon" (Barenboim/Netrebko/Villazon, DG 2007)
"Orlando Paladino" (Jacobs/Petersen/Randle, EuroArts 2010)
"Tristan und Isolde" (RSB, Janowski, Pentatone 2012)
"Matthäus Passion" (Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi 2013)

Fredrik Pacius' "Die Loreley" (Sinfonia Lahti, Osmo Vänskä)

Aulis Sallinen's "Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan" (The King Departs for France)

Armas Launis' "Aslak Hetta" (Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo)

Ludwig van Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" Bernius (Bernius/Carus 2019)

"Serious Songs" (Alba Records 2020 / Sibelius, Brahms, Schumann, Kuula)

*Cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic

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www.arttukataja.com 

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R. Schumann: "Scenes from Goethe's Faust" in Helsinki (2020):
www.areena.yle.fi/... 

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