Jonas Kaufmann

Described by the New York Times as ‘the most important, versatile tenor of his generation’, Jonas Kaufmann – born in Munich, Germany on July 10, 1969 - began his professional singing career in 1994 at the Staatstheater in Saarbrücken. Whilst still a student, Kaufmann started out performing minor roles for the Bavarian State Opera but suffered a crisis of confidence in his vocal ability in '95 prompting him to seek help. It arrived in the form of American baritone Michael Rhodes who mentored the young singer and in Jonas Kaufmann's words taught him ‘a new way of singing’. After making his Salzburg Festival debut in 1999, Jonas Kaufman's services as a tenor became in demand and four years later, he was playing the same festival with the Berlin Philharmonic. The watershed for him came in 2006 when he performed in La Traviata at New York's Metropolitan Opera to great critical acclaim. After releasing his second album Romantic Arias (2008), he entered the charts for the first time, reaching Number 31 in his native Germany. Since then, his popularity has continued to grow with each album, all of which regularly perform well in classical charts across Europe. His 2016 album Dolce Vita reached Number 7 in Germany and Austria. The same year, a documentary titled Jonas Kaufmann: An Evening With Puccini – featuring his 2015 performance at La Scala in Milan, Italy - was released in cinemas across the US. In 2017, Jonas Kaufmann released L'Opéra, which featured a collection of arias and duets from Carmen, Romeo and Juliet, Manon, and The Pearl Fishers. His 2019 album Wien reached Number 2 in Austria and Number 10 in Germany. He reached similar chart positions with several albums in 2020 including Selige Stunde and the holiday release It’s Christmas! In 2022, Jonas Kaufmann released the albums The Tenor and Insieme – Opera Duets, a collaboration with French baritone Ludovic Tézier. He then performed major cinema themes in The Sound of Movies (2023) and recorded Puccini's Turandot with Pappano and Wagner's Parsifal with Philippe Jordan. In 2024, he celebrated the centenary of Puccini's death with the album Puccini: Love Affairs, featuring sopranos Anna Netrebko, Pretty Yende, Maria Agresta, Asmik Grigorian and Malin Byström.