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. 

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 in Helsinki, Idomeneo in Tel Aviv, Hoffegut/Die Vögel in Strasbourg, and most recently Parsifal in concert in Finland and Milan, Lohengrin in Savonlinna, and Erik/Der fliegende Holländer in Beijing.

Past seasons’ additional opera highlights include, among others, Tamino/Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Opéra de Lille, Finnish National Opera, in Tampere and Savonlinna, Belmonte/Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Savonlinna, Steuermann/Der fliegende Holländer in Helsinki and in a concert performance with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Max/Der Freischütz at Theater an der Wien, and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites/Chevalier de la Force in Helsinki.

Katajala has a vast concert- and oratorio repertoire, which he performed at renowned concert halls and festivals in the USA (i.a. Avery Fisher Hall in New York), France (Salle Pleyel in Paris), Germany (Laeiszhalle Hamburg), the Netherlands (Concertgebouw Amsterdam), Portugal (Gulbenkian), Scandinavia, Spain, the UK (Glyndebourne Festival), and Japan.
Recent highlights on the concert stage include Beethoven's Symphony no 9 with the Oslo Philharmonic and Wiener Symphoniker, both under Klaus Mäkelä, Britten's "Serenade for tenor and horn" with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Mahler’s Lied von der Erde at the Scala as well as the title roles in concert performances of Parsifal and Oedipus Rex, all with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Das Rheingold/Loge in concert in Singapore, and Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu.

He worked with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kent Nagano, Klaus Mäkelä, Pablo Heras-Casado, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Susanna Mälkki, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Hannu Lintu, Tugan Sokhiev, Andrey Boreyko, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and Patrick Lange and stage directors such as Romeo Castellucci, David Marton, Ted Huffman, and Olivier Py.

Projects in season 2024/25 include his role debuts as Andrey Khovansky/Khovanshchina in Helsinki and Stockholm (Esa-Pekka Salonen) and as Pollux in Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae in Genoa with Fabio Luisi.
Further, Katajala will perform the roles of Max/Der Freischütz at Opera Leipzig, Erik/Der fliegende Holländer in semi-staged concerts in Luxembourg and Brussels (Tarmo Peltokoski), and the title role of Idomeneo on a concert tour with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra with performances in Helsinki (Music Centre), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw) and at the Tage Alter Musik festival in Herne.
In addition, he can be heard in Mahler’s Symphony no 8 in Lisbon and Estonia, as well as in Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 in Toulouse and Finland.

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www.tuomaskatajala.com

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Photo: Elina Katajala

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Photo: Elina Katajala

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Photo: Elina Katajala

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Photo: Elina Katajala

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Audio
Bach's "St. John Passion" on Good Friday from the Kallio Church in Helsinki 

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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  

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