Born in Stuttgart, baritone thomas Laske gained his first musical experience as a member of the Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben. After receiving degrees in audio and visual engineering and singing with Brigitte Dürrler in Düsseldorf, he was first engaged at the opera studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and then at the Wuppertal Bühnen. in 1997 he won the Richard Strauss Competition in Munich. His operatic repertoire includes Mozart’s leading baritone roles – Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva, Figaro – as well as roles from Italian, French, and Russian operas. Guest appearances have taken him, among others, to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera, the Cologne Opera, the Frankfurt Opera, the Lower Saxony State Theater in Hanover, and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Most notably, Thomas Laske is a sought-after lied and concert singer who has worked with conductors and ensembles such as Karl-Friedrich Beringer, Georg Christoph Biller, Riccardo Chailly, Mariss Jansons, Ton Koopman, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. For his teaching activities, the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf awarded him the title of Honorary Professor. www.thomas-laske.com