Sebastian Kohlhepp is one of the most successful and sought-after young German tenors on the international opera and concert scene.

Most recently he gave his acclaimed début as Belmonte (Entführung aus dem Serail) at the 2018 Mozart Week in Salzburg under the baton of René Jacobs. At Stuttgart Opera he thrilled audiences and critics as Jason in Konwitschny‘s new production of Cherubini’s Medea. In late 2017, likewise with René Jacobs conducting, he covered the role of Tamino in Torsten Fischer’s widely acclaimed Magic Flute production at the Theater an der Wien (Vienna).

Sebastian Kohlhepp was born in Limburg an der Lahn, where he received his first musical training at the local boys’ choir. After his studies with Hedwig Fassbender in Frankfurt he became a member of Karlsruhe Opera, where he learned and performed a great number of important tenor roles.

For the 2013-2014 season he switched to the Staatsoper in Vienna, where he sang roles such as Jaquino (Fidelio) and Froh (Rheingold) under the baton of renowned conductors including Adam Fischer, Franz Welser-Möst, Peter Schneider, Jeffrey Tate, Dan Ettinger, and Patrick Lange.

From 2015 to 2017, Kohlhepp was a member of Stuttgart State Opera. He achieved particular success as Lucio Vero in Niccoló Jommelli’s Late Baroque opera Il Vologeso (Berenice, Queen of Armenia), a production staged by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito which Opernwelt magazine singled out as “2015 Opera Rediscovery of the Year”. Further roles covered in Stuttgart were Alfred (Fledermaus), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Oronte (Alcina), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), and Lurcanio (Ariodante).

Guest engagements led him to perform at the Opera of Monte-Carlo (First Jew in Salome), at the Theater an der Wien (Eurimaco in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), Vienna Volksoper (the title role in Albert Herring), Basel Theatre (Tamino in The Magic Flute), und Cologne Opera (Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni).

As a concert soloist, Kohlhepp collaborates on a regular basis with ensembles such as Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Chamber Choir, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent, Gaechinger Cantorey, the NDR Choir, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, B’Rock, and Collegium 1704, as well as with renowned conductors including René Jacobs, Philippe Herreweghe, Pablo Heras-Casado, Frieder Bernius, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Helmuth Rilling, and Andreas Spering. He has performed at outstanding venues including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Philharmonie in Paris, the Philharmonie in Cologne, Vienna Konzerthaus, the Tonhalle in Zurich, Shanghai Concert Hall, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Rheingau Music Festival, and the Passau European Festival.

In the summer of 2018, Sebastian Kohlhepp will make his Salzburg Festival début appearance in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony conducted by Teodor Currentzis. He will sing the same part at the closing concert of Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival under the baton of Justus Frantz. In late 2018, Kohlhepp will perform his US début with the Boston Symphony under Andris Nelsons. In Hamburg he will participate for the first time in a John Neumeier Hamburg Ballet production, singing Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes at Hamburg State Opera.

A series of CD, DVD, and broadcast recordings offer further insight into Sebastian Kohlhepp’s multifarious talents. He is prominently featured in Christoph Spering’s complete recording of the Bach Chorale Cantatas, which received the coveted German Echo Klassik Award in 2017. René Jacobs’s new recording of the St. John Passion (Harmonia Mundi), in which Kohlhepp sang the tenor arias, was distinguished with the ICMA Award in the Baroque Vocal category that same year.