Thomas Oliemans, baritone
Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory, coached by Margreet Honig. He continued his studies with KS Robert Holl, Elio Battaglia and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
A regular guest at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, he has appeared there as Papageno in Simon McBurney’s production of Die Zauberflöte (which earned him their Prix d’Amis), Schaunard in La Bohème, Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Peter in Hänsel und Gretel and Lescaut in Manon Lescaut.
Other recent opera highlights include Mr Redburn in a new production by Deborah Warner of Billy Budd, conducted by Ivor Bolton, and Silvio de Nardi in Bomarzo, both at Teatro Real Madrid, his house debut at English National Opera as Figaro in Fiona Shaw’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro, Mr Redburn for Rome Opera, Schaunard at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Il Conte di Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and the title role in Thomas’ Hamlet at the Göteborg Opera, Papageno at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte and Donner in Das Rheingold at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Ramiro in a concert version of L’Heure espagnole with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Lescaut in Manon at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and Gonsalvo Fieschi in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten at the Salzburger Festspiele. Elsewhere, he has performed Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos and Marcello in La Bohème, all at the Opéra National du Rhin, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Scottish Opera, Gunther in Götterdämmerung at the Nationale Reisopera and Frank in Die tote Stadt at the Opéra national de Lorraine. He has sung leading roles in worldpremieres of contemporary composers such as Peter-Jan Wagemans, Rob Zuidam and Martijn Padding. Equally in demand in concert, Mr Olieman’s engagements include Bruckner’s f minor Mass with the Sinfonieorchester Basel and Ivor Bolton, Frank Martin’s Jedermann-Monologe with The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Shostakovich’s Symphony no 14 in Valladolid, a tour of Mahler’s Lied von der Erde with Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Akamus Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor as well as the Royal Liverpool Phiharmonic and Vasili Petrenko, Bach’s Matthäus-Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Ivor Bolton, as well as with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with The Hague Philharmonic, songs from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo, Beethoven Symphony No.9 with the Orchestre National de Lille, the KIOI-Sinfonietta in Tokyo and the Dresdner Philharmonie, Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette and Joseph in L’Enfance du Christ by Berlioz with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Pater Ecstaticus in Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Bochumer Symphoniker, Christus in the Johannes-Passion with the Orchestra of the 18th Century, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with Holland Symfonia and Frank Martin’s Suite from Der Sturm with the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse.
Thomas Oliemans has worked with conductors as Charles Dutoit, Jiři Bělohlávek, Hans Christoph Rademann, Ingo Metzmacher, Semyon Bychkov, Pablo Heras- Casado, David Afkham, Marc Albrecht, Ivor Bolton, Frans Brüggen, Hartmut Haenchen, Edo de Waart, Kent Nagano, Jaap van Zweden, Reinbert de Leeuw, James Gaffigan, Markus Poschner and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and stage directors such as Robert Carsen, Simon McBurney, Christof Loy, Willy Decker, Pierre Audi, Philipp Himmelmann, David Alden, Sir Thomas Allen, Stephen Langridge and Laurent Pelly.
A sought-after recitalist, he appears with pianists Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, Rudolf Jansen and Paolo Giacometti, amongst others, in Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, Zürich, Basle, Antwerp, Lübeck, London (Wigmore Hall), Tokyo and Paris. A regular guest at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, he recently presented together with Malcolm Martineau the three main Schubert song-cycles there within the course of a week, as well as Wolf and Schumann recitals.
His discography includes Schubert’s Winterreise and Schwanengesang, an album of song cycles by Francis Poulenc and Gabriel Fauré with pianist Malcolm Martineau, entitled Mirages, substantial contributions to vols 3, 4 and 5 of the Complete Poulenc-series by Signum Classics, an album with the Schumann cycles op 89, 90 and 48, with pianist Paolo Giacometti, Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Akamus Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor under Hans-Georg Rademann, works by Frank Martin for baritone with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Christus in Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and Frans Brüggen and Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Gordan Nikolic.
Highlights in the 2018/19 season include returns to Dutch National Opera and English National Opera as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, to the Festival Aix-en- Provence and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Mr Redburn, recitals with Malcolm Martineau at the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, in Madrid, Toronto and New York, amongst other places, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with the Dutch Chamber Choir and Peter Dijkstra and Thomas Larcher’s Symphony for Baritone and Orchester, Alle Tage, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Thomas Oliemans will also curate the 2019 Delft Chamber Music Festival.