Thomas Oliemans

Born in Amsterdam in 1977, the Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory, coached by Margreet Honig. He continued his studies with KS Robert Holl, Elio Battaglia, Dieter Muller and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

He made his opera debut in 2002 with the Nationale Reisopera of The Netherlands as the Father in Hans Werner Henze’s Pollicino conducted by Aldert Vermeulen. He returned as Minos in Handel’s Arianna in Creta and Ned Keene in Britten’s Peter Grimes conducted by Kenneth Montgomery. Further opera appearances followed such as Heraut in Gluck’s Alceste, Der Komthur in Schulhoff’s Die Flammen and Rudolf in Schreker’s Der Ferne Klang – all at the Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw during the NPS opera matinee series. Douphol in Traviata with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and a live TV broadcast open-air concert with Vesselina Kassarova at the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam.

In 2005 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Gonsalvo Fieschi in Schreker's Die Gezeichneten conducted by Kent Nagano. Further important debuts followed in 2006 as Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflote with the Opera of Nantes and Angers, to great public and critical acclaim, and at the Opera de Geneve as Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte. That same year he also sang Frank Martin’s ‘Der Sturm’ in Mulhouse.

Most recent appearances include Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) at the Scottish Opera, Maximilan (Candide) at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Papageno (Die Zauberflote) at the Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse, Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, Tarquinius (Rape of Lucretia) at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp and Gent, Silvano (Un Ballo in Maschera) , the title role in Adam in Exile (Dutch contemporary world premiere) and Le Grand Pretre (Castor et Pollux) at the De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, Sonora (Fanciulla del West), Der Bootsman in Frank Martin’s Der Sturm and Strauss’ Des Esels Schatten’, all with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra for the prestigious NPS opera matinee series at the Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, L’Enfance du Christ by Berlioz with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra as well as a program of Wagner songs (Orchestrated by Henze) with the Bochumer Symphoniker at the Konzerthaus Dortmund.

Thomas Oliemans appears regularly on the concert stage and his repertoire includes a.o. all major works by J.S. Bach, Mahler’s orchestral song cycles, Requiems of Brahms, Faure and Durufle, Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle, Honnegger's Le Roi David as well as Mendelssohn’s Elias.

Oliemans has collaborated with conductors as Kent Nagano, Edo de Waart, Jaap van Zweden, Claus Peter Flor, Ed Spanjaard, Steven Sloane, Yakov Kreizberg, Uri Segal, Jan Willem de Vriend, Paul McCreesh, Kenneth Montgomery and Riccardo Chailly.

Future opera engagements include Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) with Scottish Opera, Pontus (Legende) with De Nederlandse Opera, Hercule (Alceste) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, Schaunard (La boheme) at the Royal Opera Covent Garden and Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon at the Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse. He will return to sing Marcello (La boheme) at the Nationale Reisopera of the Netherlands where he will also perform Gunther (Gotterdammerung) after his recent success as Donner (Das Rheingold).

Thomas Oliemans is already a sought after recitalist. He gave recitals at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Bosendorfersaal and Schubert’s birth-house in Vienna and in London, Dortmund and Zurich. Future invitations include recitals in London (Wigmore-hall), Oxford, Amsterdam (Concertgebouw) and Glasgow. With pianist Malcolm Martineau he recorded for Etcetera Records a highly acclaimed CD with song cycles by Francis Poulenc and Gabriel Faure and for Fineline Classical he recorded Schubert’s Winterreise.

2010 will see two new CD releases: Schubert’s Schwanengesang with pianist Malcolm Martineau and Frank Martin’s works for baritone and orchestra with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Sloane.