Tobias Scharfenberger

After receiving his first private singing lessons with Vera Ilieva in Trier, Tobias Scharfenberger went on to study under Profs. Gerhard Faulstich and Roland Hermann at the Hannover and Karlsruhe conservatories. He also took master-classes with Aldo Baldin, Brigitte Fassbaender, Peter Schreier and Thomas Allen, and attended courses in lieder interpretation with Duo Mitsuko Shirai/Hartmut Höll and Roger Vignoles.Tobias Scharfenberger’s singing career began while still a student with engagements at various opera houses including that in Frankfurt am Main (since 1991), the State Opera Stuttgart, State Theatre Kassel, Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf and the Theater Klagenfurt.From 1995 to 1997, Tobias Scharfenberger was engaged as a lyrical baritone by the Bielefeld Theatre, where he played not only such important roles as Papageno (“The Magic Flute”), Graf Almaviva (“The Marriage of Figaro”), the title role in Rossini’s “Barbiere di Siviglia” and Dr. Falke (“Die Fledermaus”), but also such lesser known parts as Graf Siegfried in Schumann’s only opera, “Genoveva”. He has been a member of the Cologne Opera House ensemble since the 1997/98 season.Tobias Scharfenberger was among the prize-winners at Würzburg’s Mozart Festival Competition 1991. The Richard Strauss Society in Munich awarded him its prize for promising young talent and in the summer of 1998, he won a Steans Institute Scholarship for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival Chicago.His numerous concert engagements have enabled him to work with such renowned conductors as Karl-Friedrich Beringer, Hanns-Martin Schneidt, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kent Nagano and Zubin Mehta.