Biography
Finnish tenor Tuomas Katajala is one of the most versatile and sought-after Scandinavian tenors and has achieved noticeable success not just as an opera singer, but as a concert singer as well. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki as well as in Rome and Amsterdam and has a longstanding and close relationship with the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki and the Savonlinna Opera Festival, where he made his stage debut as Tamino/Die Zauberflöte. Following this, he was accepted into the master class at the Accademia Rossiniana and undertook the role of Libenskopf in Il Viaggio a Reims under the baton of Alberto Zedda at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro.Past seasons’ opera highlights include, among others, Tamino/Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin and Opéra de Lille, Almaviva/Il barbiere di Siviglia at Komische Oper Berlin, Ferrando/Così fan tutte at Seattle Opera, Steuermann/Der fliegende Holländer in Helsinki and in a concert performance with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Don Ottavio/Don Giovanni at Finnish National Opera, as well as Belmonte/Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.
In 2019, he made his debut as Max in Der Freischütz on the occasion of a concert tour with concerts in Vienna, Brussels, Caen, Luxemburg, Aix-en-Provence and at Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele. This engagement marked a change in repertoire and was followed by debuts as Loge/Rheingold at the Finnish National Opera and Idomeneo in Tel Aviv.
Katajala’s vast concert- and oratorio repertoire includes the key works by J.S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruckner, Mahler and Britten. He sang at different music festivals in the USA (i.a. Avery Fisher Hall in New York), France (Salle Pleyel in Paris), Germany (Laeiszhalle Hamburg), Scandinavia, Spain, the UK (Glyndebourne Festival), and Japan.
Tuomas Katajala worked together with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Klaus Mäkelä, Susanna Mälkki, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Hannu Lintu, and Santtu-Matias Rouvali.
Engagements in the season 2021/22 include the new productions of Don Giovanni/Don Ottavio at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and Braunfels’ Die Vögel/Hoffegut in Strasbourg and Mulhouse, as well as Zauberflöte/Tamino in Tampere.
On the concert stage he can be heard in Stravinsky’s Renard with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas Collon, in Schnittke’s Faust Cantata with Rome’s Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano, as Ferrando in a concert version of Così fan tutte with the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Antonello Manacorda, in Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn, as well as in Bach’s St John Passion with the Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon.
In the season 2022/23 Tuomas will be on stage as Tamino/Zauberflöte at the Finnish National Opera as well as in Savonlinna, and as Max/Der Freischütz at Theater an der Wien, among others.
In addition, he can be heard in Beethoven's Symphony no 9 with the Wiener Symphoniker under Klaus Mäkelä, in Britten's "Serenade for tenor and horn" with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and as Loge in a concert performance of Rheingold in Singapore.
Artist Website
www.tuomaskatajala.comManagement
General ManagementArtist Manager

Ingunn Sighvatsdóttir
Artist Manager
ingunn@orlob.net
Mobil: +49-173-2 067 821
Repertoire
Repertoire Concert
Bach, C.P.E. | St. Matthew Passion / Evangelist & Tenor |
Bach, J.S. | B minor mass |
Cantatas: BWV 1, 12, 20, 22, 23, 55, 60, 93, 96, 131, 140, 181, 191, 211 | |
Christmas Oratorio | |
Magnificat | |
St. John Passion / Evangelist & Tenor | |
St. Matthew Passion / Evangelist & Tenor | |
Beethoven | Missa solemnis |
Symphony no 9 | |
Berlioz | Te Deum |
Britten | Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, op. 31 |
Brahms | Die schöne Magelone op. 33 |
Liebeslieder-Walzer op. 52 | |
Dvorak | Stabat Mater |
Franck | Mass in A major |
Gounod | San Francesco d´Assisi |
Gossec | Requiem |
Haatanen | Christmas Oratorio |
Haydn | Requiem |
Stabat Mater | |
The Creation | |
The Seasons | |
The Seven Last Words of Christ | |
Hidas | Requiem |
Händel | Israel in Egypt |
Jephtha | |
Messiah | |
Utrecht Te Deum | |
Janacek | Glagolitic Mass (Slavonic Mass) |
Kortekangas | Pyhiinvaelluskantaatti |
Kostiainen | Triduum Paschale |
Liszt | Missa Solemnis |
Psalm 13 | |
Lloyd-Webber | Requiem |
Maasalo | Christmas Oratorio |
Madetoja | Okon Fuoko (ballet) Väinämöisen kylvö |
Mahler | Das Lied von der Erde |
Mendelssohn | Elijah |
Lobgesang | |
Paulus | |
Mozart | C minor mass |
Cantata "”Die Maurerfreuden”" | |
Davide penitente | |
Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento | |
Requiem | |
Mäenpää | Vihreä Virta (Song cycle) |
Orff | Carmina Burana |
Penderecki | Polish Requiem |
Pänkäläinen | St. Luke Passion |
Pärt | Stabat Mater |
Rachmaninoff | Vigilia |
Rossini | Petite messe solennelle |
Stabat Mater | |
Rutter | Psalmfest |
Saint-Saëns | Oratorio de Noël |
Sallinen | A Windy Winter in Provence |
Barabbas Dialogues / The youth op. 84 | |
Schumann | Dichterliebe op.48 |
Spanische Liebeslieder op. 138 | |
Schubert | Die schöne Müllerin op. 25 |
Intende Voci | |
Mass in A flat major | |
Mass in E flat major | |
Mass in G major | |
Winterreise op. 89 | |
Schostakowitsch | Suite on Finnish Themes |
Sibelius | Rakastava -sarja |
Strawinsky | Pulcinella |
Tammelin | Requiem |
Verdi | Requiem |
Repertoire Opera
Beethoven | Fidelio | Jaquino |
Berg | Lulu | Alwa |
Wozzeck | Andres | |
Braunfels | Die Vögel | Hoffegut |
Britten | Albert Herring | Albert Herring |
Owen Wingrave | Lechmere | |
Donizetti | Don Pasquale | Ernesto |
L'elisir d'amore | Nemorino | |
Lucia di lammermoor | Edgardo | |
von Flotow | Martha | Lyonel |
Glass | The Fall of the House of Usher | Roderick Usher |
Halevy | La Juive | Leopold |
Händel | Acis and Galatea | Acis |
Radamisto | Tiridate | |
Lehár | The Merry Widow | Camille de Rosillon |
Linkola | Robin Hood | Puna-Will |
Meyerbeer | Le prophète | Jean de Leyde |
Mozart | Così fan tutte | Ferrando |
Der Schauspieldirektor | Monsieur Vogelsang | |
Die Entführung aus dem Serail | Belmonte | |
Die Zauberflöte | Tamino | |
Don Giovanni | Don Ottavio | |
Idomeneo | Idomeneo | |
La clemenza di Tito | Tito | |
Zaide | Gomatz | |
Puccini | Gianni Schicchi | Rinuccio |
La fanciulla del West | Harry | |
Reinvere, Jüri | Purge | Hans |
Rossini | Il barbiere di Siviglia | Conte Almaviva |
Il viaggio a Reims | Belfiore | |
Conte di Libenskof | ||
La Cenerentola | Don Ramiro | |
Saariaho | Adriana Mater | Yonas |
Strauss, J. | Die Fledermaus | Alfred |
Strauss, R. | Arabella | Matteo |
Daphne | 2. Schäfer | |
Der Rosenkavalier | Ein Sänger | |
Die schweigsame Frau | Henry Morosus | |
Stravinsky | The Rake's Progress | Tom Rakewell |
Tchaikovsky | Eugene Onegin | Lensky |
Ullmann | Der Kaiser von Atlantis | Ein Soldat |
Harlekin | ||
Verdi | Falstaff | Fenton |
La traviata | Alfredo | |
Rigoletto | Duca | |
Wagner | Das Rheingold | Loge |
Der fliegende Holländer | Steuermann | |
Die Meistersinger v. Nürnberg | David | |
Tristan und Isolde | Ein Hirte | |
Junger Seemann | ||
Zimmermann | Die Soldaten | Desportes |
News

New and Old
Following his successful debut as Max in Carl Maria von Weber's "Der Freischütz" in 2019, which marked a change in repertoire in a more dramatic direction, Tuomas Katajala is now back in the same role! This time at Theater an der Wien in a new staging by Hungarian director David Marton, who focuses on "the eroding boundaries between inner and outer worlds and, using techniques from film, highlights them as barriers between the individual and the collective as well."The exciting production is conducted by Patrick Lange and celebrates its premiere on 22 March, 2023.
Further performances: 24/27/29 March & 01/03 April, 2023
Subsequently, Tuomas Katajala returns to his native Finland, where he can be heard in a role which has accompanied him much longer. On two evenings he will be on stage as Tamino in Barrie Kosky's legendary staging of Mozart's Magic Flute at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki: 18 and 26 April, 2023
www.theater-wien.at/ ...
Media
Images
Photo:Heikki Tuuli

Photo: Heikki Tuuli

Photo: Heikki Tuuli

Photo: Heikki Tuuli

Photo: Elina Katajala
Download available

Photo: Elina Katajala
Download available

Photo: Elina Katajala
Download available

Photo: Elina Katajala
Download available
Audio
Bach's "St. John Passion" on Good Friday from the Kallio Church in Helsinki
Video
Beethoven's Symphony No 9 with the Oslo Philharmonic and under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä ( Solo: 54:00)
Beethoven's "Missa solemnis" under Hannu Lintu at the Savonlinna Opera Festival (Solo & Ensemble 35:15 - 39:15)
Mahler Symphony No 8 under Hannu Lintu in Helsinki
Press
Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn and strings / Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / 14.10.22 / resmusica.com
"une interprétation parfaitement convaincante où l'on admire les qualités vocales de Tuomas Katajala que l'on découvre à Paris (timbre, puissance, diction)"
Die Vögel / Opéra National du Rhin / 26.01.22 / opern.news
"Mit Tuomas Katajala war auch diese Partie ideal besetzt, sein heldenhafter Tenor kommt mit schwerem Metall und einer geradezu liedhaften Wortdeutlichkeit."
Die Vögel / Opéra National du Rhin / 24.01.22 / sceneweb.fr
"Bright-timbred and reliably projecting Tuomas Katajala displays his solid heldentenor qualities"
Die Vögel / Opéra National du Rhin / 21.01.22 / olyrix.com
"In the role of Hoffegut, Tuomas Katajala projects a clear and bright voice, with a full-bodied timbre, with a vivid and light vibrato, in a very lyric phrasing carried by a powerful breath."
Die Vögel / Opéra National du Rhin / 19.01.22 / anaclase.com
"The voice of the day is the one of Tuomas Katajala, a bright and very sharp tenor voice whose art of phrasing and musicality in every instant win all the votes."
Covid fan tutte / Finnish National Opera Helsinki / Oktober 2020 / airmail.news
"the singing you won't forget comes from Tuomas Katajala, a frisky tenor whose joyous timbre, vibrant projection, and unforced elegance of line are like sunshine on a cloudy day. If there's a Mozart tenor at large who can touch Katajala nowadays, he's not on our radar."
Don Giovanni (Stream) / Finnish National Opera Helsinki / 10.06.20 / forumopera.com
"La clarté de l’émission et de l’articulation, la voix longue, virile, au timbre charnu le hissent au plus haut niveau."
Das Rheingold / Finnish National Opera Helsinki / 17.09.19 / onlinemerker.com
"war ein überaus präsenter Loge mit roten Haaren und einem facettenreichen Tenor, mit dem er gerade für diese spezielle Rolle ideal besetzt war"
Das Rheingold / Finnish National Opera Helsinki / 12.09.19 / olyrix.com
"le Loge de Tuomas Katajala oscille de facon crédible entre un jeu excité et une expression tantôt mélancolique, tantôt susurrante, toujours avec un ténor clair et chaleureux"
Das Rheingold / Finnish National Opera Helsinki / 08.09.19 / operatraveller.com
"His youthful tenor, with a distinctive fast vibrato, gave much pleasure"
Das Rheingold / Finnish National Opera Helsinki / 03.09.19 / seenandheard-international.com
"Seemingly effortless beauty of tone and expressive acting characterised his performance"
Die Zauberflöte / Opéra de Lille / 06.05.19 / olyrix.com
"montre une force courageuse dans la voix, qui se trouve incarnée par un timbre brillant aux aigus d'airain"
Der Freischütz / Grand Théâtre de Provence (Aix-en-Provence) / 09.03.19 / fredailleurs.blogspot.com
"projette parfaitement sa voix veloutée sans fléchir dans les aigus, avec une ligne de chante très soignée"
Der Freischütz / Grand Théâtre de Provence (Aix-en-Provence) / 09.03.19 / destimed.fr
"un parfait Max"
Der Freischütz / Théâtre de Caen / 04.03.19 / olyrix.com
"Sa voix articulée et déclamée, au timbre moelleux présente des aigus aisés et bien projetés"
Der fliegende Holländer (konzertant) / Auditorium Parco della Musica Rom / 04.04.18 / mtglirica.com
"è stato la seconda splendida sorpresa della serata"
Der fliegende Holländer (konzertant) / Auditorium Parco della Musica Rom / 02.04.18 / connessiallopera.it
"efficace nell'interpretazione grazie a una voce dal timbro chiaro"
Cosi fan tutte / Seattle Opera / 15.01.18 / seattletimes.com
"adroit, athletic actors with unique vocal strengths"
Die Zauberflöte / Royal Opera House / 14.10.17 / olyrix.com
"grâce à l’agilité de sa technique et à la chaleur de son timbre"
Die Entführung aus dem Serail / Savonlinna Opera Festival / 07.07.17 / bachtrack.com
"a strong higher register"