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.
Guest engagements led the young baritone to the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, to Tampere (as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore), to the Savonlinna Opera Festival (Carmen, Rigoletto), to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Festival de Musique de Strasbourg, the Hamburgische Staatsoper, as well as to the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile.
 
Throughout the past seasons, he sang various tour concerts with works by Bach (Hamburg, Lausanne, Beaune, Madrid, and Bilbao) with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra under the baton of René Jacobs, was a part of the St. John Passion under Christoph Spering at the Festival Bilbao, and guested in Tampere with the B Minor Mass and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra. Once again under the baton of René Jacobs he sang the St. John Passion at the MiTo Festival in Italy with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the Rias Chamber Choir, the Messiah under Michael Sanderling and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Bach Cantatas and Magnificat with the DSO and the Rias Chamber Choir under Rinaldo Alessandrini in Berlin. Furthermore, he made his debut with the International Bach Academy (IBA) under Hans-Christoph Rademann with JS Bach’s and CPE Bach’s Magnificat.
 
In the season 2016/17, Arttu Kataja debuted at the Theater an der Wien in Antonio Salieri’s Falstaff under the baton of René Jacobs. In addition, he performed at the Staatsoper Berlin in Die Zauberflöte (Papageno), La Bohème (Marcello), King Arthur under René Jacobs, Ariadne auf Naxos (Musiklehrer), and Kat’a Kabanova, led by Sir Simon Rattle and directed by Andrea Breth.
As a concert singer, his path led him to Finland with Bach cantatas under Sakari Oramo and for the concert Italienisches Liederbuch in cooperation with Camilla Nylund and Marita Viitasalo, as well as to Spain performing with the Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid under Victor Pablo Pérez Faurè’s Requiem and in Oviedo and Gijón Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ.
 
Last season, Arttu Kataja took over the following roles at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin: Peter Besenbinder/Hansel and Gretel, Papageno/Die Zauberflöte, 1st Soldier/Salome and Bass/King Arthur under the baton of René Jacobs.
 
Also on the concert stage Mr. Kataja was very active. Engagements include the baritone part in Ein deutsches Requiem in Bruneck and Brixen with the Streicherakademie Bozen, Fernando in a concertante performance of Fidelio with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki, as well as the bass parts in Haydn’s The Seasons in Hamburg, Bremen and Stuttgart and in Bach’s B minor Mass in Dresden and Stuttgart, all with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart under the baton of Hans-Christoph Rademann.  

Engagements at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin of the season 2018/19 include Hippolyte et Aricie under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, Hänsel und Gretel/Peter, La traviata, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Daniel Barenboim as well as Die Zauberflöte/Papageno. Furthermore, he will sing Count Almaviva/Le nozze di Figaro with René Jacobs at the International Music and  Dance Festival in Granada.
 
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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