Thomas Gropper (Bass-Baritone, Choral Conductor)

Born: 1969 - Braunlage/Harz, Lower Saxony, Germany

The German bass-baritone, Thomas Gropper, studied opera and concert singing at the Hochschule für. Musik und Theater in Munich, first with Hanno Blaschke, later with Professor Markus Goritzki. He further studied oratorio singing with Adalbert Kraus and Hanns-Martin Schneidt as well as melody singing with Helmut Deutsch. Since he finished his studies he has worked with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Josef Metternich.

Thomas Gropper’s main focus lies in oratorio singing where he has interpreted every important bass and baritone part from Monteverdi and Heinrich Schütz to Orff and Benjamin Britten. Many of his performances have been recorded for radio and CD. These concentrated mainly on oratorios and cantatas written by J.S. Bach. He has sung with the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Münchener Bach-Chor, the Münchner MotettenChor, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt, the Berliner Symphoniker and Münchner Symphoniker and the Heinrich-Schütz-Ensemble München. He has worked under conductors like Fabio Luisi, Hanns-Martin Schneidt, Hayko Siemens, Wolfgang Kelber, Roderich Kreile and Siegfried Heinrich.

The highlights of this season (2006-2007) were Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Stiftsruine Bad Hersfeld Festival and the following concert tour, Felix Mendelssohn’s First Walpurgis Night with the Berliner Symphoniker at the Berlin Philharmony Concert Hall, George Frideric Handel’s Theodora together with Emma Kirkby at the Residence Munich as well as Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Münchner MotettenChor in Istanbul.

Thomas Gropper also works in the area of opera singing. He could for example be heard as Figaro, Don Giovanni and Papageno. He sang the part of Don Febeo from Simon Mayr’s Che Originali at the City Theater Ingolstadt as well as for a CD production. And he participated in several scenic productions of J.S. Bach’s Johannes Passion (BWV 245) and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

An important part of Thomas Gropper’s work is education. He is voice coach at the Münchener Bach-Chor and the Munich Motetten Choir and he teaches at Munich’s Drama School. Since 1997 he has worked as a teacher at the Munich Conservatory where he became professor for song, speech and singing didactics in 2001.

Source: MTS Travel Website (June-July 2007); Guild Music Website
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (June 2010)

Thomas Gropper: Short Biography | Arcis-Vocalisten München | Recordings of Vocal Works

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Leander Eisenwinter

Bass

BWV 248/4-6

Links to other Sites

MTS Travel: International Choir Festival in Oberammergau, Germany
Arcis-Vocalisten München: Chorleiter [German]

Thomas Gropper - Bass (Guild Music)
Thomas Gropper (Wikipedia) [German]