Celeste Armonia

Tuomas Katajala
1° Premio ex-aequo 2003

Tuomas Katajala’s beautiful tenor shows both versatily and lyrical qualities in a repertoire which ranges from Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion (Evangelist) to Verdi’s Requiem.

A native of Finland , he studied singing with Esko Jurvelin and Peter Lindroos at the Sibelius-Academy in Helsinki . In the fall of 2003 he received a scholarship for lessons with Stephen Kramer and Sergio La Stella in Rome, to complete his further education with with Rudolf Jansen, Kondrad Richter and Helmut Deutsch as well as Udo Reinemann at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

He came first at the International Tenor Competition in Jyväskylä in 2002 and won the 1st Prize ex aequo with the Italian Soprano Anna Malavasi at the 2003 Musica Sacra Competition in Rome. In 2004 he won the Second Prize at the Gösta Winbergh Tenor Competition in Stockholm .

Tuomas Katajala has performed concerts in his homeland, in Europe and in the USA for example in Bach’s St Mathew and St John passions, Christmas oratorio, Magnificat, Mass in b minor, Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem and Verdi’s Requiem. He has also sung recitals in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, German y, Italy, Great-Britain, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg.

His repertoire also includes a wide range of contemporary music: In 2003 he performed Vihreä virta, a song cycle by Ilmari Mäenpää, and E. J. Rautavaara’s opera Auringontalo in Oulu, followed by a world premiere and recording (Ondine, 2004) of Armas Launis’Aslak Hetta with the Finnish Radio-Symphony Orchestra. Together with the Oulu City Orchestra he sang in Leevi Madetoja’s Ballett Okon Fuoko (2002) and in Väinämöisen kylvö, a composition for tenor and orchestra. Both works have been recorded by Alba in 2004.

In 2004, Tuomas Katajala made his debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London with Verdi’s Requiem and Sir David Willcocks conducting. He has also repetedly performed at the Musik på slåttet festival at the Royal Palace in Stockholm as well as at the International Organ Festival in Lahti . In 2005 he performed in Aulis Sallinen’s Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan (The King Goes Forth to France ) with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Lied von der Erde at the Les Heures Romantiques Festival in France and toured the USA as a soloist of the YL Mail Voice Choir, including a concert at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York .

He has further performed with the London Festival Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Hermitage Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic and the Baroque Ensembles of Stockholm and Helsinki , with such conductors as Mats Liljefors, Patrick Gallois, Mikko Franck, Jean Thorel, Sakari Oramo and John Storgåds.

In Summer 2006 Tuomas Katajala made a splendid debut at the Savonlinna Opera Festival as Tamino in The Magic Flute, and in the fall he is touring France with several concerts of a Mozart project, including Bordeaux and Paris, Cité de la Musique. His coming assignments include Il Viaggio a Reims at the Finnish National Opera.