ARTTU KATAJA
A prize winner of several competitions including the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg, Finnish baritone Arttu Kataja started his musical education with oboe lessons at the age of 9 and joined the vocal department of the Sibelius-Academy in Helsinki in 1998. Currently he is working with Elisabeth Werres in Berlin.
Guest engagements led him to the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, (Viaggio a Reims, Le nozze di Figaro, Arabella, Cosi fan tutte, Andrea Chenier), Tampere Opera (Belcore/L’elisir d’amore) the Savonlinna Opera Festival (Carmen 2006-7, Rigoletto 2008), the Strassburg Festival, Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Figaro, Masetto, Guglielmo) and Japan, together with Daniel Barenboim and the Berliner Staatsoper. Since 2006 he has been an ensemble member of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, performing such parts as Count/Le nozze di Figaro, Guglielmo/Così fan tutte, Taddeo/L’Italiana in Algeri, Masetto/Don Giovanni, Don Fernando/Fidelio, Ottokar/Freischütz, Schaunard/Bohème, Sprecher/Die Zauberflöte, Silvano/Un ballo in maschera, Heerrufer/Lohengrin, to name but a few.
Mr. Kataja is very active as a recitalist and concert singer. He has appeared in several European countries as well as the USA, with such orchestras as the Finnish Radio-Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Helsinki und Turku. He performed at the renowned Finnish music Festivals of Kuhmo and Naantali and sang Haydn’s Creation under Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Helsinki Festival in 2004, as well as the Finnish music festivals of Kuhmo and Naantali.
Arttu Kataja’s recordings include a DVD of Manon (Barenboim/Netrebko/Villazon, Deutsche Grammophon 2007), several Programmes for the Finnish broadcast as well as CDs of Fredrick Pacius, Die Loreley (Sinfonia Lahti, Osmo Vänskä); Aulis Sallinen, Kuningas lähtee ranskaan (The King goes forth to France), and Armas Launis, Aslak Hetta (Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo).
