Tuomas Katajala

The Finnish tenor Tuomas Katajala is currently one of the most versatile and sought‑after tenors in the Nordic countries internationally, and he has achieved significant success both on opera and concert stages. He has performed at, among others, La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Berlin State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Cologne Opera, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Seattle Opera in the United States, Theater an der Wien, Aix‑en‑Provence, Glyndebourne, the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Finnish National Opera. His roles have included the central lyric heldentenor roles, such as the title role in Wagner’s Lohengrin, Erik in The Flying Dutchman, the title role in Parsifal, David in Die Meistersinger, Loge in Das Rheingold, Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz, Grigori in Boris Godunov, Pollux in Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae, as well as Mozart’s central roles such as Idomeneo, Belmonte and Tamino.

In the autumn of 2025, Katajala has performed, among other things, in the Cologne Opera’s new production of Das Rheingold, given concerts in Palermo in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the Latvian National Opera. Katajala will make both a role and house debut when he appears as Bacchus in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in early 2026.

Katajala has an exceptionally extensive concert and oratorio repertoire, which includes over 100 performed works from the Baroque era to contemporary music. As a concert singer, Katajala has appeared at, among others, the Royal Albert Hall in London, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Salle Pleyel and L’Auditorium de Radio France in Paris, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Esplanade in Singapore, the Duomo in Milan, La Folle Journée in Tokyo, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

He has worked with several conductors, such as Kent Nagano, Enrique Mazzola, Marc Albrecht, Antonello Manacorda, Peter Schreier, Matthias Pintscher, Antonio Fogliani, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Klaus Mäkelä, Tarmo Peltokoski, Pablo Heras‑Casado, Andrey Boreyko, Esa‑Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Susanna Mälkki, Hannu Lintu, Tugan Sokhiev, Andrey Boreyko, Santtu‑Matias Rouvali, and with directors such as Harry Kupfer, Kasper Holten, Marco Arturo Marelli, Romeo Castellucci and Barrie Kosky.

Katajala has been awarded the Karita Mattila and Martti Talvela prizes, the Häme Art Prize, the Beniamino Gigli Prize and the medal of Sibelius’s birthplace.

Katajala has also served as the artistic director of the Espoo Urkuyö ja Aaria Festival since 2022.