Baritone Dominik Köninger was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and studied under Prof. Roland Hermann at the "opera school" (Institute for musical theatre at the University of Music in Karlsruhe). He already appeared in numerous productions during those years, including Dandini in Rossini's "La Cenerentola", and Teodoro at the debut performance of Paisiello/Henze's German version of "Il re Teodoro in Venezia" as part of the Schwetzinger Festspiele and at the Badisches Staatstheater. Those days also saw him sing his first Guglielmo in "Così fan tutte", a role that Köninger would reprise on numerous occasions.

He is the recipient of grants from the Foundation for the Arts of Baden-Württemberg and from the German People's Foundation for Studies and has been awarded the first prize at the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition 2011 and at the Mozart Festival Competition Würzburg 2006. His education is rounded out with master classes taught by Brigitte Fassbaender, Ann Murray, Rudolf Piernay, and Kurt Moll, among others.

He gave his opera debut at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele in 2004 under Wolfgang Gönnenwein and performed in subsequent seasons in the role of Morales in Bizet's "Carmen" at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.

His broad opera and concert repertoire, spanning the entire range from Baroque music to contemporary works, led Dominik Köninger to such noted venues as the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Stuttgarter Liederhalle, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Rudolfinum Prague, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (SHMF), the Vilnius opera, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, venues where he worked under conductors of renown including Kent Nagano, Herbert Blomstedt, and Yves Abel. An engagement in Israel marked his first performance outside of Europe.

For the 2006/07 season he was a member of the ensemble of the Tiroler Landestheater, where he excelled in roles including, among others, Ottokar ("Freischütz"), Dr. Falke ("Die Fledermaus") and Guglielmo ("Così fan tutte"), under the direction of, e. g., Peer Boysen and Brigitte Fassbaender.

Beginning with the 2007/08 season, the Hamburg Staatsoper saw Köninger join the ensemble of the International Opera Studio and sing the roles of Papageno, Schaunard ("La Bohème") and Marullo ("Rigoletto") with conductors such as Simone Young, Alessandro de Marchi und Stefan Soltesz. In the summer of 2009, he performed at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival as Jesus in the German premiere of the staged "Johannes-Passion" (Robert Wilson).

That same year, Dominik Köninger guested in Hamburg as Cascada ("The Merry Widow"), as Kilian ("Der Freischütz", Bertrand de Billy) and as Mercurio ("Poppea", Hengelbrock/Carsen) at the Theater an der Wien. In Frankfurt/Main he sang Schumann's "Paradise and the Peri" cantata, followed by "Jesus on tour" (with the SHMF) in Ljubljana and Mozart's "Coronation Mass" under the direction of Helmut Rilling of the Bach Academy in Stuttgart.

Additional guest performances in the 2010/11 season took him, as Dr. Falke ("Fledermaus", Philip Stölzl/Manfred Honeck) to the Staatsoper Stuttgart; at the Volksoper Wien, he sang Dandini ("Cenerentola"). The "Dialogues des Carmélites" (Bertrand de Billy/Robert Carsen) led him to the Theater an der Wien. Köninger's season was rounded out by singing Papageno at the Hamburgische Staatsoper and by his debuting as Dancairo at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

This past year he debuted as the Count ("Le Nozze di Figaro") at the Summer Opera Festival Klosterneuburg (Austria).

He will return to both the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (with Orff's "Carmina Burana") and to the Volksoper in Vienna (Dr. Falke, Dandini) in the 2011/12 season. In Karlstad (Sweden), at the Värmland Opera, he will perform Jesus ("St. John Passion") under the scenic direction of Tobias Kratzer.

With Christopher Hogwood conducting, Dominik Köninger will sing Mozart's version of Händel's "Ode to St. Cecilia" in 2012; the following year will see his debut at the National Theatre in Tokyo as Guglielmo. With the 2012/13 season, he will join the ensemble of the Komische Oper Berlin to sing, among other roles, Guglielmo, Papageno, Orfeo, and Orest ("Iphigénie").

http://www.dominikkoeninger.de/