Biography

The native Finn, Arttu Kataja, started his musical studies as a nine-years-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 has been a permanent member of the ensemble of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, where he has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Asher Fisch, René Jacobs, Philippe Jordan, Andris Nelsons, Sir Simon Rattle and Omer Meir Wellber, performing roles such as Papageno/Die Zauberflöte, Guglielmo/Cosí fan tutte, Peter Besenbinder/Hänsel und Gretel, Bass/King Arthur, Marcello/La Bohème, Music Teacher/Ariadne auf Naxos, Kuligin/Katja Kabanowa and Lucifero/Il primo Omicidio. Guest appearances have taken the baritone to the Theater an der Wien, Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile, Hamburg State Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, Tampere, as well as to the Savonlinna Opera Festival and Festival de Musique de Strasbourg.

Arttu Kataja is a highly sought-after concert and lieder singer. In 2020 his critically acclaimed Lied CD with pianist Pauliina Tukiainen entitled "Serious Songs" was released by Alba Records with works by Sibelius, Brahms, Schumann and Toivo Kuula.
Under the direction of René Jacobs, he sang Count Almaviva in a semi-concert version of Le Nozze di Figaro with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra on a world tour, works by J.S. Bach with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra in touring concerts in Hamburg, Madrid, Bilbao, Lausanne and Beaune, and the St. John Passion together with the Akademie für Alte Musik and the RIAS Kammerchor at the MiTo Festival in Italy.

Other concert highlights included Händel's Messiah conducted by Michael Sanderling at the Dresden Philharmonic, works by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, and Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten with the International Bach Academy Stuttgart and its principal conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann performed in Hamburg, Dresden, Stuttgart and Bremen, also Brahms Requiem in Bruneck and Brixen with the Streicherakademie Bozen, cantatas and Magnificat by J.S. Bach with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester 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 as well as Berlioz' L'enfance du Christ in Oviedo and Gijón. In his home country, 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.

2020 projects with the Hamburg Symphony included the Fauré Requiem*, Haydn's Die Schöpfung with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover under Risto Joost*, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 in Jena. He also made a guest appearance as Germont in La Traviata at the Savonlinna Opera Festival* and he sang the Brahms Requiem under Frieder Bernius at the Liederhalle Stuttgart *. In 2021 he appeared again with René Jacobs and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at the Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias as Guglielmo in Cosí fan tutte, with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging he recorded the St. John Passion under the baton of René Jacobs and with the Basel Chamber Orchestra a video production of Haydn's Stabat Mater which was broadcast live during the Bartók Spring International Arts Weeks by Müpa Budapest.

In 2021/22, Kataja will sing Sibelius' Kullervo in Lahti as part of the Sibelius Festival under the baton of Dalia Stasevska and Sinfonia Lahti, and will perform Schubert's Mass in A-flat Major under Frieder Bernius in Stuttgart's Liederhalle and Bressanone Cathedral.
He will also perform Sibelius' Kullervo in Utrecht and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with the Netherlands Radio Filharmonisch Orkest under James Gaffigan, and then at the Aarhus Symfoniorkester with Schubert's Orchester Lieder conducted by Hartmut Haenchen. At his home theater in Berlin, he will participate this season in the world premiere of Peter Eötvös' operatic ballad "Sleepless," a production that will also premiere with him at the Grand Théâtre Genève in spring 2022. Kataja can also be heard again in productions of Hippolyte et Aricie under Sir Simon Rattle, as well as in Hänsel and Gretel, The Magic Flute, Ariadne auf Naxos and La Fanciulla del West.
In addition, he will present works from his Lied CD "Serious Songs" with pianist Pauliina Tukiainen in the Apollosaal of the Staatsoper Berlin. Under the direction of Risto Joost, he will sing Papageno in The Magic Flute at Tampere Opera, and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival he will be a guest in Tosca.

Arttu Kataja's recordings include:
"Manon" (Barenboim/Netrebko/Villazon, Deutsche Grammophon 2007), "Orlando Paladino" (Jacobs/Petersen/Randle, EuroArts 2010), "Tristan und Isolde" (RSB, Janowski, Pentatone 2012), "St. Matthew Passion" (Jacobs/Harmonia Mundi 2013), Fredrik Pacius' "Die Loreley" (Sinfonia Lahti, Osmo Vänskä), Aulis Sallinen's "Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan" (The King Goes to France), Armas Launis' "Aslak Hetta" (Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo), Ludwig van Beethoven "Missa Solemnis Bernius (Bernius/ Carus 2019), "Serious Songs" (Alba Records 2020 / Sibelius, Brahms, Schumann,Kuula).

*cancelled due to Covid

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

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