Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans has established himself in recent years on leading international opera, concert and festival stages as a singer of outstanding musicality, intelligence and compelling stage presence. His debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York last season as Papageno was highly acclaimed by the critics: ‘a singular Papageno’ (New York Times) and ‘the star of the show’ (New York Classical Review).
The season 2023-24 will see his returns to De Nationale Opera Amsterdam as Father-in- Law in Saahiaroh’s Innocence and as Papageno/Die Zauberflöte as well as to Staatsoper Berlin in the world premiere of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Melancholie des Widerstands. He will also appear in recitals at Oxford Lieder Festival together with pianist Hans Eijsackers and in the Netherlands, accompanying himself on the paino.
Thomas Oliemans has appeared at Metropolitan Opera New York, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Staatsoper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the English National Opera, Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, Göteborg Opera, the Salzburger Festspiele, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Opéra National du Rhin and Grand Théâtre de Genève in repertoire that spans from Mozart to the 21st century like Papageno/Die Zauberflöte, Figaro, Il Conte di Almaviva/Le nozze di Figaro, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso/Cosi fan tutte, Mr. Redburn/Billy Budd, Schaunard, Marcello/La Bohème, Faninal/Der Rosenkavalier, Peter Besenbinder/Hänsel und Gretel, Valmont/Quartet (Francesconi), Le Témoin/L’Apokalypse Arabe (Odeh-Tamimi), Pluto/Eurydice – Die Liebenden blind (Trohjahn), Bill/Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Hamlet/Hamlet, Gonsalvo Fieschi/Die Gezeichneten, Lescaut/Manon Lescaut, Eisenstein/Die Fledermaus, Harlekin/Ariadne auf Naxo, Gunther/Die Götterdämmerung, Donner/Das Rheingold and Kothner/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Thomas Oliemans has had the pleasure to collaborate with conductors and ensembles such as Daniel Barenboim, Ivor Bolton, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Natalie Stutzmann, Raphaël Pichon, Marc Albrecht, Hartmut Haenchen, Antonello Manacorda, Peter Dijkstra, Markus Stenz, Jaap van Zweden, James Gaffigan, Simone Young, Karina Canellakis, Vasily Petrenko, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Pygmalion and Amsterdam Sinfonietta.
His extensive concert repertoire encompasses Bach’s Passions, Shostakovich’s Michelangelo-Suite and Symphony no 14, Gustav Mahler‘s Das Lied von der Erde, all his orchestral song cycles as well as his Symphony no 8, Mendelssohn’s Elias, Richard Danielpour’s Elegies, Beethoven‘s Symphony no 9, Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Sinfonie, Larcher’s Alle Tage and Frank Martin’s Jedermann-Monologe. Recently he performed Matthias Pintscher’s Shirim together with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by the composer, and Hawar Tawfiq’s Requiem des Fleurs et des Nuages with Philharmonie Zuidnederland.
A sought-after recitalist, he has appeared in Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, Zürich, Stuttgart, Basel, Antwerp, London (Wigmore Hall), New York, Toronto, Tokyo and Paris with pianists Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, Graham Johnson and Paolo Giacometti. His repertoire includes the great song cycles by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf and Mahler, french repertoire from Caplet to Fauré, Debussy, Poulenc and Ravel up to numerous works of the 21st century.
Thomas Oliemans is a regular guest at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and was artist in resident there last season. Highly praised by critics and public are his solo recitals of Schubert’s Winterreise accompanying himself on the piano. In preparation for these recitals he recorded a 25 episodes podcast on behalf of the Concertgebouw. Together with dutch journalist and moderator Gijs Groenteman he presents the cycle with its musical, literary and emotional aspects to the public.
He curated the 2019 Delft Chamber Music Festival and was on the Jury of the 2019 International Vocal Competition s’Hertogenbosch, where he also appeared in recital with Graham Johnson and gave a masterclass. He was also invited to give masterclasses at the Operastudio of the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and most recently at the Academia Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Recordings include the album Formidable! dedicated to French Chanson, with Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Schumann’s Dichterliebe and song cycles op 89 and 90, Mendelssohn’s Elias with Akamus Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor under Hans-Christoph Rademann, works by Frank Martin for baritone with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Brahms’ Requiem together with Residentie Orkest and Jan Willem de Vriend as well as with Flemish Rado Choir and Bart van Reyn, Schubert’s three song cycles, several volumes of songs by Poulenc and Fauré with Malcolm Martineau, Christus in Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and Frans Brüggen and Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Gordan Nikolic. In August 2023 a new CD of Brahms’ Die schöne Magelone together with Malcolm Martineau was released by Linn Records.
ANY PUBLIC USE OF THE ABOVE TEXT IS NOT PERMITTED WITHOUT SPECIFIC AUTHORIZATION OF SOREK ARTISTS MANAGEMENT.
