biography | detailed version

Thomas Ebenstein was born in Carinthia/Austria in 1979. He received vocal training from Helena Łazarska at the Vienna University of Music and Dramatic Arts. Graduation with honours in 2004. He also studied German Lied with Robert Holl.

In 2001 he won the International Antonin Dvořak Competition in Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), in 2003 the Musica Juventutis Competition at the Vienna Konzerthaus, in 2005 the International Heinrich Strecker Competition in Baden near Vienna and in 2007 the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation granted him a scholarship for the Bayreuth Festival.

From 2003 to 2012 Thomas Ebenstein was a member of the Berlin Komische Oper (among other roles he sang Pedrillo (The Abduction from the Seraglio), Basilio (The Marriage of Figaro), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Monostatos (The Magic Flute), Jaquino (Leonore & Fidelio), Kilian (The Marksman), Vašek (The Bartered Bride), David (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), Remendado (Carmen), Andrès / Cochenille / Frantz / Pitichinaccio (The Tales of Hoffmann), Chekalinsky (The Queen of Spades), Narraboth & Fourth Jew (Salome), Valzacchi (The Knight of the Rose), Truffaldino (The Love for Three Oranges), Andres (Wozzeck), Jack O’Brien (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny), Earl of Kent (Reimann: Lear); Alfred (The Bat), Gustl (The Land of Smiles), Toby (Sweeney Todd).

Since the beginning of the 2012/13 season Thomas Ebenstein has been a member of the Vienna State Opera. Among other roles he sang Arnalta (The Coronation of Poppea), Basilio (The Marriage of Figaro), Monostatos (The Magic Flute), Prince Shuysky (Boris Godunov), Scrivener (Khovanshchina), Triquet (Eugen Onegin), Chekalinsky (Pique Dame), Guillot de Morfontaine (Manon), Andrès / Cochenille / Frantz /  Pitichinaccio (The Tales of Hoffmann), Steersman (The Flying Dutchman), Froh (The Rhinegold), Third Knight (Parsifal), The Gingerbread Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Dott. Cajus (Falstaff), Un Incredibile (Andrea Chénier), First Jew (Salome), A young servant & Aegisth (Elektra), Valzacchi (The Knight of the Rose), The dancing master (Ariadne on Naxos), Hunchback (The Woman without a Shadow), Count Elemer (Arabella), Monsieur Taupe (Capriccio), Marquis (The Gambler), Tattered peasant (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Kudrjáš (Káťa Kabanová), Vitek (Věc Makropulos), Jack O’Brien (Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny), Bob Boles (Peter Grimes), Chaplain (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Robespierre (Einem: Danton’s Death), Caliban (Adès: The Tempest), Menelaos (Trojahn: Orest), Edgar (Staud: The Willows, WP); Alfred (The Bat).

The tenor has made guest appearances at the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Teatro alla Scala Milan, the Baverian State Opera, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Dresden Semperoper, Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opéra National de Lyon, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Theater an der Wien, Vienna Volksoper, Theater Dortmund and Tōkyō Bunka Kaikan; Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Easter Festival, Salzburg Festival, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Bochum Ruhrtriennale, Bergen International Festival and Hong Kong Arts Festival.
He appeared there in roles such as Pedrillo (The Abduction from the Seraglio), Don Basilio (The Marriage of Figaro), Monostatos (The Magic Flute),  Jaquino (Fidelio), Kilian (The Marksman), The Steersman (Flying Dutchman), Mime (The Rhinegold & Siegfried), A young sailor & A shepherd (Tristan and Isolde), First Grail Knight (Parsifal), Triquet (Eugen Onegin), Chekalinsky (The Queen of Spades), Dott. Cajus (Falstaff), Goro (Madame Butterfly), First Jew (Salome), A young servant (Elektra), Valzacchi (The Knight of the Rose), The dancing master (Ariadne on Naxos), Hunchback (The Woman without a Shadow), Truffaldino (The Love for Three Oranges), Captain (Wozzeck), Bob Boles (Peter Grimes); Alfred (The Bat), Adam (The Bird Seller), Armand Brissard (The Count of Luxemburg), Tony (West Side Story).

A CD live recording of Fidelio conducted by Sir Simon Rattle is available on EMI Classics and of The Woman without a Shadow by Christian Thielemann on ORFEO. DVD recordings are available of Parsifal conducted by Christian Thielemann on Deutsche Grammophon, of The Abduction from the Seraglio from the Salzburg Festival on Arthaus Musik and of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg on Unitel Classica / EuroArts. In 2018 his debut recording with Lieder from R. Strauss, Schönberg, Zemlinsky and Korngold was released on Capriccio (Première Portraits).

Thomas Ebenstein has worked with a number of prestigious conductors such as Thomas Adès, Alain Altinoglu, Marco Armiliato, Philippe Auguin, Bertrand de Billy, Giampaolo Bisanti, Semyon Bychkov, Nicholas Carter, Riccardo Chailly, Alessandro De Marchi, Placido Domingo, Christoph Eschenbach, Alfred Eschwé, Adam Fischer, Edward Gardner, Daniele Gatti, Christoph Gedschold, Valery Gergiev, Pablo Heras-Casado, Manfred Honeck, Jakub Hrůša, Marek Janowski, Alexander Joel, Philippe Jordan, Michail Jurowski, Axel Kober, Patrick Lange, Louis Langrée, Friedemann Layer, Jesús López Cobos, Nicola Luisotti, Cristian Măcelaru, Cornelius Meister, Zubin Metha, Ingo Metzmacher, Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Erwin Ortner, Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Helmuth Rilling, Evan Rogister, Daniele Rustioni, Peter Schneider, Michael Schønwandt, Alexander Soddy, Stefan Soltesz, Jeffrey Tate, Christian Thielemann, Alexander Vedernikov, Emmanuel Villaume, Sebastian Weigle, Omer Meir Wellber, Franz Welser-Möst, Simone Young, and producers such as Calixto Bieto, Irina Brook, Robert Carsen, Willy Decker, Karoline Gruber, Stefan Herheim, Andreas Homoki, Richard Jones, Peter Konwitschny, Barrie Kosky, La Fura dels Baus, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Moshe Leiser, Robert Lepage, Marco Arturo Marelli, Christoph Marthaler, Damiano Michieletto, David McVicar, Andrea Moses, Hans Neuenfels, Andrei Șerban, Peter Stein, Simon Stone, Dmitri Tcherniakov and Mariusz Treliński.

Apart from singing in opera houses, the Austrian Tenor performs in concerts at the Vienna Musikverein, Vienna Konzerthaus, Chamber Music Festival Lockenhaus, Berlin Philharmonic, Cologne Philharmonic, Dortmund Konzerthaus, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Dresden Music Festival, Dresden Philharmonic, Verbier Festival, Lucerne Festival, KKL Lucerne, New York Carnegie Hall, NTR ZaterdagMatinee at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, DeDoelen Rotterdam, George Enescu Festival, Bucharest Sala Palatului, Auditorium di Milano, Cracow Philharmonic and the Pomeranian Philharmonic Bydgoszcz.

In addition, he performs Lieder (accompanied in particular by Charles Spencer and David Lutz) and sacred vocal music.

 

2025/26
Updated: September 2025