The renowned international bass, Franz-Josef Selig, has performed at all of the major opera houses in the world, including the Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Teatro Real Madrid, Paris Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera New York, as well as at renowned festivals such as the Bayreuth, Baden Baden, and Salzburg Festivals, and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. His vast repertoire includes the roles of Gurnemanz, König Marke, Sarastro, Rocco, Osmin, Daland, Fiesco, and Fasolt. He has worked with numerous eminent orchestras under the batons of esteemed conductors including Christian Thielemann, Sir Simon Rattle, Marek Janowski, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Muti, Yannick Nezét-Séguin, Antonio Pappano, Philippe Jordan, Daniel Harding, and many others.

The artist completed his studies in sacred music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne before making the move to the singing class of Claudio Nicolai. His start in the profession came in the form of a contract as an ensemble member of the Aalto-Theater in Essen, a position he held for six years, before embarking on his freelance career.

The 2022/2023 season will start for the artist with a concert version of Act 1 of Wagner's Die Walküre (Hunding) under Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Festival de Lanaudière/Canada. In Oslo he will be heard in concert performances of Act 3 of Wagner's Parsifal (Gurnemanz) under Asher Fisch, in Munich, Hamburg and Luxembourg in Wagner's Siegfried (Fafner) together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle, also in concert. In Duisburg and at the Audi Summer Concerts in Ingolstadt, Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust will once again be on the programme. He will present his new Lied programme with Gerold Huber at the Kölner Philharmonie.

Otherwise, numerous international opera projects await the artist: Daland in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto (under Johannes Debus) and at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice (under Markus Stenz) as well as King Marke in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Sir Donald Runnicles. At the Vienna State Opera, F.J.Selig will again appear as Sarastro in Mozart's Zauberflöte (under Alexander Soddy) and as Gurnemanz in Wagner's Parsifal (under Philippe Jordan).

He will present his new lieder programme with Gerold Huber in Brussels at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.

Numerous CD and DVD productions document the artistic range of this extraordinary singer - from Bach's St Matthew Passion to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (Royal Opera London/Sir Colin Davis), Don Giovanni (Vienna State Opera/Riccardo Muti), Le nozze di Figaro (Salzburg Festival/Nikolaus Harnoncourt), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Gran Teatre del Liceu/Ivor Bolton/Christoph Loy) to L'incoronazione di Poppea (Gran Teatre del Liceu/David Alden/Harry Bicket).

He recorded the role of Gurnemanz in Wagner's Parsifal both under Christian Thielemann (Vienna State Opera, released by Deutsche Grammophon) and with Marek Janowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Pentatone). The DVD of the production Der Ring des Nibelungen (DG, production of the Metropolitan Opera New York, 2010) with Franz-Josef Selig as Fasolt received the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 2013. A DVD Der Fliegende Holländer from the Bayreuth Festival from 2013 has also been released (Thielemann/Gloger). Under the title Prometheus (AVI), he unites songs by Schubert, Wolf and Strauss. In July 2015, Deutsche Grammophon released a new recording of Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail conducted by Yannick Nezét-Séguin (production summer 2014 at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden) and just recently Die Zauberflöte (production spring 2018 at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden) on CD.