The German tenor, Thomas Ströckens, studied singing at the Conservatories of Aachen, Cologne and Detmold. In Detmols he completed his artistic studies with honour, performong Leicester in the opera Maria Stuarda by Gaetano Donizetti. He also attended master-classes with Hans Hotter, Mitsuko Shirai, Hartmut Höll and Kurt Widmer.
Thomas Ströckens was engaged at the opera houses of Cobourg, Regensburg, Trier, Heidelberg and Erfurt as well as at the state theaters of Mainz and Darmstadt, at the Cologne Opera and the Volksoper in Vienna. At these opera houses he appeared especially in roles of the lyrical tenor, such as Tamino, Belmonte, Ferrando, Fenton and Lenski in Eugene Onegin by Peter Tchaikovsky.
In recent years Thomas Ströckens has regularly performed the great tenor roles in French, Italian and German operas, including Faust in the opera of the same name by Charles Gounod, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini and Florestan in Fidelio by L.v. Beethoven. Under the baton of Peter Ruzicka, director of the Salzburg Festival, he participated at the opera house of Cologne in the contemporary opera Celan, directed by Günter Krämer, and composed by Peter Ruzicka himself.
Parallel to his activities in prestigious opera houses, Thomas Ströckens has expanded his repertoire of major works of the most famous Baroque, classical and romantic composers. Concert tours have taken him to many European countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary) and South Korea and Turkey.
Thomas Ströckens has made numerous recordings for radio stations German WDR, NDR, SWR, SR and for the Dutch radio and is regularly invited for TV productions, including TV ARD, ZDF, WDR, Arte and 3 Sat. |