For almost four decades, Thomas Quasthoff set standards as a singer on international stages and reached and moved countless people with his art. In January 2012, he ended his unparalleled career as a classical singer. He remains closely associated with singing and art: as a teacher, as a reciter and speaker at concerts, at readings and now increasingly as a jazz singer together with Wolfgang Haffner (drums), Dieter Ilg (double bass) and Simon Oslender (keyboards).
Over the course of his career, he has performed with all the leading orchestras and was at home as a lieder and concert singer on all the major concert stages and at major festivals. He has worked closely with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Helmuth Rilling, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst.
Thomas Quasthoff has been "Artist in Residence" at the Vienna Musikverein, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, the Lucerne Festival as well as in Baden-Baden, Hamburg, London's Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Centre.
Thomas Quasthoff has proven more than once that he enjoys taking on new challenges. For several years now, Thomas Quasthoff has been performing his various jazz programs at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Vienna State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Prinzregententheater in Munich, in Dresden, at the festivals in Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, Leverkusen, Heidelberg, the Jazzfest in Bonn and the Rheingau Festival.
In 2024, Thomas Quasthoff celebrates his 50th stage anniversary and can be heard with various jazz formations at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Jazz-Fest Bonn, the Wigmore Hall, the Rheingau Festival, the Verbier Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Glocke in Bremen and the Admiralspalast in Berlin. He can also be heard with a program entitled "Humanity in War" together with the Amatis Trio in Blaibach, Basel, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, in Utrecht and at the Musikfest in Dresden. To mark the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schönberg's birth, he will perform the narrator's part in Schönberg's Gurre songs with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle and with the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester under the direction of Alan Gilbert.
Thomas Quasthoff has received numerous national and international awards, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Three of his recordings have won a Grammy and six have been awarded the Echo Prize. From 1996-2004, Thomas Quasthoff held a professorship at the Detmold University of Music. Since then he has taught at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. He also regularly gives masterclasses, including at the Heidelberger Frühling, the Verbier Festival and the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg. His passionate commitment to young singers also motivated him to found the international competition "Das Lied" in 2009, which is held every two years as part of the Heidelberger Frühling.
