Benjamin Bruns began his singing career as an alto soloist with the boys’ choir of his hometown of Hanover. Following four years of private vocal training with Prof. Peter Sefcik, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Kammersängerin Renate Behle. While still a student, he was offered his first permanent engagement at the Theater Bremen, which enabled him to build a broad repertoire at an early stage in his career. This was soon followed by an ensemble contract at Cologne Opera. After a period at the Semperoper Dresden, his career led him directly to the Vienna State Opera, where he was a member of the ensemble from 2010 to 2020.
His stylistically and vocally diverse repertoire encompasses Mozart roles such as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, as well as roles including Fenton in Falstaff, Camille de Rosillon in Die lustige Witwe, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Boris Grigorievič in Kátia Kabanová and the Italian Tenor in both of Richard Strauss’s operas Capriccio and Der Rosenkavalier. With Wagner roles including Lohengrin, Parsifal, Loge in Das Rheingold, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer and Siegmund in Die Walküre, as well as Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz, the Emperor in Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten and Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Benjamin Bruns has successfully expanded his repertoire into the heldentenor repertoire.
Oratorio and song form an important counterpart to his work on the operatic stage. The focus of his extensive concert repertoire is on the major sacred works of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn. He has performed with all major German orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, as well as with renowned international ensembles such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Collegium Japan, the Czech Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
The 2026/27 season brings numerous outstanding projects for Benjamin Bruns, including the particular highlight of his role debut as Siegfried in the final two parts of Richard Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen – Siegfried and Götterdämmerung – in the new production at the Bavarian State Opera. As Stolzing in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, he will make another role debut at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In Prague, he will take on the title role in Handel’s Rinaldo in a concert performance with the Czech Radio Orchestra. He will also appear in Amsterdam in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Oksana Lyniv.
His concert engagements include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in Madrid with the Orquesta Nacional de España under Josep Pons; Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo; Mendelssohn’s Elias in Vienna with the Vienna Symphony under Manfred Honeck; Mozart’s Requiemin Zurich with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Paavo Järvi; and Liszt’s Faust Symphony in Munich with the Munich Philharmonic under Fabio Luisi. In Frankfurt, he will also appear as part of the “Beethoven 200” concert in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Hugh Wolff.
His numerous recordings, including Dichterliebe (featuring Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Der arme Peter, Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and Hugo Wolf’s Liederstrauß and Italienische Liederbuch), as well as Winterreise, both with pianist Karola Theill, have received widespread critical acclaim and numerous awards. Most recently, in 2025, Haydn’s The Creation was released on the BR-KLASSIK label under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.
