Michael König is a heroic tenor who performs in the world’s most prestigious opera houses including Semperoper Dresden, Opéra National de Paris, Hamburg State Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Berlin State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Festival Bayreuth, Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, Covent Garden London, Glyndebourne, Zurich, Oslo, Tokyo and La Scala, Milan. His voice and powerful stage presence is in demand for renowned roles such as Florestan (Fidelio), Max (Der Freischütz), Lohengrin, Siegmund (Die Walküre), Erik (Der Fliegende Holländer), Kaiser (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos), Jim Mahoney (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), Andrey Khovansky (Khovanshchina), Grigory/The Pretender (Boris Godunov), and Sergey (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) amongst others.
Michael made his debut at La Scala in 2017 as Max in Der Freischütz. Recently he could be heard in a new production of Lohengrin at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Florestan (Fidelio) in Luxembourg and Stuttgart, Ariadne auf Naxos in Lausanne and at La Scala in Milan, Jim Mahoney at the Korea National Opera in Seoul, Siegmund (Die Walküre) at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse as well as in Amsterdam. As a concert performer he sang Beethoven’s 9th symphony at La Scala and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles and on tour in Washington, London and Paris.
Michael is also in high demand on the concert stage. His extensive repertoire includes the tenor parts in Beethoven’s 9th symphony and Missa solemnis, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Das Klagende Lied and the 8th symphony and he has performed with top orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the LA Philharmonic , the BR and SWR Symphony Orchestras and the San Francisco Symphony.
He has worked with celebrated conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Christian Thielemann, Andris Nelsons, Daniele Gatti, Seji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, Vladimir Jurowski, Gennadi Rozhdesventsky, Hartmut Hänchen, Sebastian Weigle, Teodor Currentzis and Christoph von Dohnányi.
Michael König was born in Mutlangen, Germany and began his singing career as a member of the Schwäbisch Gmünd St. Michael’s boys’ choir. He studied music at the Mannheim Conservatory with Rudolf Piernay. His early engagements included Jeník (The Bartered Bride) for Glyndebourne Festival, Narraboth (Salome) and Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) in Frankfurt and Lensky (Eugene Onegin) in Baden – Baden, Basel and Paris.
When he is not touring, Michael lives with his family in Haida Gwaii, BC Canada.
Future projects include a concert performance of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck (Tambourmajor) at the Verbier Festival as well as Die Walküre and Die Frau ohne Schatten in Stuttgart and again Die Walküre at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.