Jonas Kaufman is one of the sought-after tenors, whose name on the posters guarantees full houses. Thanks to the spectacular appearance and the presence of charisma, he fell in love with opera, if not the whole world, then many.
Biography
Jonas Kaufman was born on July 10, 1969 in Munich. His parents come from East Germany. The family of the future tenor had nothing to do with music. Father was an insurance agent, and mother was a teacher. Jonas has an older sister.
His grandfather instilled a love of opera Kaufman in his childhood. He lived in the same house as Jonas, but one floor higher. Grandfather often went down to his grandson, and together they listened to Wagner's operas and concerts of symphonic music. Parents had a family subscription to the Bavarian Opera, where they often drove Jonas.
At age 8, Kaufman began to take piano lessons. At this time, his parents decided to send him to a strict classical gymnasium, where he had his own choir. In the graduation class, Jonas began to participate in city and church holidays. He was paid for such performances. Also a schoolboy, he managed to work in the choir of the famous Munich Prince Regent Theater.
Despite the boundless love of music, Jonas's parents decided that his son should receive a technical education. So Kaufman became a student at the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Munich. At the end of the second semester, he fled from there to the Higher School of Music. He graduated in 1994 as a chamber and opera singer.
Career
After the Higher School of Music, Kaufmann could not find work in his native Munich. Then he decided to move to the west of Germany - to the city of Saarbrücken. There he performed at the local theater for two seasons.
Soon, fate brought him together with vocal teacher Michael Rhodes. He helped Kaufman find himself in the opera, that is, gain his voice. After practicing with him, Jonas felt confident, and left the Saarbrücken Theater for free swimming.
In 2002, Kaufmann became a full-time soloist of the Zurich Opera. At the same time, not only the repertoire is expanding, but also the geography of his performances in Europe. The concert schedule is getting denser. However, he was still not very familiar with a wide audience. His finest hour took place in 2006, when he replaced the sick leading tenor of the Metropolitan Opera Rolando Villazona in La Traviata. After the performance, Jonas received an impressive portion of applause from the audience.
Specialists call Jonas Kaufmann the most important German opera singer since the time of Fritz Wunderlich. He performs arias from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, Carmen by Georges Bizet, Valkyrie by Richard Wagner, Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi and many others.
