Wolfgang Koch, Baritone/Bass-Baritone

Wolfgang Koch is currently one of the most important dramatic bass- baritones in the opera world. He studied singing at the Musical Highschool Munich as well as with Josef Metternich, Gianni Raimondi and Leondino Ferri followed by engagements in the ensembles of Stadttheater Bern, Staatsoper Stuttgart and the Wiener Volksoper, where he celebrated great successes in new productions of Schrekers Irrelohe, Kienzels Evangelimann, Orffs Die Kluge and d´Alberts Tiefland.

By now Wolfgang Koch works freelance at all important operas in the world.

He made his highly praised debut as Hans Sachs in Wagners Die sang Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Frankfurt Opera in autumn 2006, where he successfully the title role in the new production of Reimanns Lear in September 2008. This was followed by his role debut as Mandryka in Arabella (Strauss) and as Borromeo in Hans Pfitzners Palestrina, both in 2009.

In January 2008 he achieved a great success as Hans Sachs at the Wiener Staatsoper. There he also sang Telramund in Lohengrin and Jochanaan in Strauss´ Salome. In spring 2008 he triumphed with his debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg as Alberich in Wagners Rheingold, where he already represented Jochanaan and Alberich in the new production of Wagner’s Siegfried. In the last two seasons Wolfgang Koch performed in Hamburg in new productions of Bliss, Don Giovanni and Götterdämmerung as well as in revivals of Rheingold, Siegfried and Parsifal.

The artist is deeply associated with the Staatsoper Munich, where he after new productions of Busonis Doktor Faust in June 2008, Pfitzners Palestrina in January 2009 and Lohengrin in Juli 2009, he also sang Pizarro in Beethoven’s Fidelio. In the current season he performs as Alberich in the new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen.

At the Salzburg Festival in August 2011 Wolfgang Koch made his role debut as Barak in Frau ohne Schatten. In the very same role he quite recently was to be seen at the Wiener Staatsoper.

At the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London Wolfgang Koch will make his debut in 2011 as Hans Sachs followed by the Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2012. In 2014 Wolfgang Koch will perform at the Metropolitain Opera New York for the first time. Projects in Bayreuth, Salzburg Festival, at the Staatsoper and the Theater and der Wien in Vienna as well as in Dresden and Frankfurt are lying ahead.

Concert appearances have led him to the Scala in Milano, the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, to Hamburg, Bruxelles and Paris and to the Wiener Konzerthaus, where he was heard in the concert version of Tabarro’s FlorentinischeTragödie in May 2010. In January 2011 he celebrated his debut in the Musikverein with Zemlinsky’s Lyrischer Symphonie under the baton of Kirill Petrenko.

He took part in CD and DVD productions, such as Rheingold in Hamburg, Lear in Frankfurt, Palestrina and Lohengrin in Munich and many others.

March 2012