Arttu Kataja

Arttu Kataja, one of Finland’s most highly regarded artists, has been a member of the ensemble at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin for around 20 years. He is particularly known for his refined musicianship and the exceptional beauty of his sound, both on the concert platform and as a recital singer. On the opera stage, he has made his mark in the major Mozart roles, while also appearing as Peter Besenbinder in Hänsel und Gretel, Marcello in La Bohème, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and Wolfram in Tannhäuser, among others. In Berlin, he has worked with conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Philippe Jordan, Andris Nelsons, Sir Simon Rattle and Omer Meir Wellber.

In the 2026/27 season, Arttu Kataja will perform Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem with the Pori Sinfonietta, followed by Handel’s Messias with the Sinfonia Lahti under the direction of Hannu Lintu. Together with Frieder Bernius and Musik-Podium Stuttgart, he will once again take Beethoven’s Missa solemnis on tour in Italy. He will sing Antonio Salieri’s Falstaff with the B’Rock Orchestra under the direction of René Jacobs in Brussels and Antwerp, as well as at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Kölner Philharmonie. At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, he will once again take on the title role in Le nozze di Figaro under the musical direction of Marc Minkowski in Jürgen Flimm’s production. At the Savonlinna-Opernfestival, he will sing the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia in 2027.

In the 2025/26 season, Arttu Kataja performed Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht for the first time with Jordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Nacional de Catalunya in San Sebastián, Paris and Barcelona. He once again worked with René Jacobs at the Forum Musicum Festival in Wrocław, where he was heard in Scarlatti’s oratorio Cain, ovvero il primo omicidio. This was followed by a return invitation from the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra for Jean Sibelius’ The Origin of Fire under the direction of Karina Canellakis, and, around the turn of the year, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Philharmonie Dresden under Sakari Oramo. In spring 2026, he embarked on an extensive tour of the Netherlands with Bach’s Matthäus-Passion and the Noord Nederlands Orkest under Hartmut Haenchen. During the festival season, he appeared at the Rheingau Musik Festival in Mendelssohn’s Paulus under Frieder Bernius and took part as Andrey Shchelkalov in Boris Godunov at the Savonlinna-Opernfestival. On the opera stage, he made his debut as Posa in Don Carlos in Tampere; at his home house, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, he sang, among other roles, the Herald in Lohengrin, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and Capulet in Roméo et Juliette.

Recent highlights have also included Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem at the Rheingau Musik Festival, Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust with the Coro e Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon under Hannu Lintu, Bruckner’s Mass No. 1 with the RIAS Kammerchor at the Philharmonie Berlin, as well as a tour of the Netherlands with Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with the Nederlands Kamerkoor, B’Rock and Peter Dijkstra. He also performed in Leoš Janáček’s Die Ausflüge des Herrn Brouček with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. On the opera stage, this was followed by his role debut as Germont in Verdi’s La traviata at the Tampere Opera. Guest engagements have also taken Arttu Kataja to the Theater an der Wien, the Théâtre du Capitole, the Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki and to Japan with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatsoper Berlin, among others.

His active concert career encompasses numerous national and international appearances. He has worked repeatedly with René Jacobs in concerts and recordings with ensembles including the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the RIAS Kammerchor, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Kammerorchester Basel. He also has a longstanding artistic relationship with Frieder Bernius and Musik-Podium Stuttgart. He has also performed a wide-ranging repertoire with ensembles including the Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphoniker Hamburg and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Arttu Kataja’s recordings include the 2024 release on MDG (Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm) of Gustav Mahler’s songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Katharina Kammerloher, Arttu Kataja and Eric Schneider, the LSO Live production of Leoš Janáček’s opera Die Ausflüge des Herrn Brouček with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, as well as Schubert’s Winterreise (Alba, 2022) and Serious Songs (Alba, 2020) with pianist Pauliina Tukiainen. Further releases include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (Carus, 2019) and Bach’s Matthäus-Passion (Harmonia Mundi, 2013).

Arttu Kataja studied voice in Helsinki and received two awards at the International Mozart Competition Salzburg.