Univ.-Prof. Rainer Trost, Tenor
Ordinariate for Voice
trost@mdw.ac.at

Rainer Trost was born in Stuttgart and studied with Adalbert Kraus in Munich. At the age of 26, thanks to John Eliot Gardiner, he had his first international success as Ferrando in "Così fan tutte" in Paris. This was followed by a tour and finally a recording of this opera with Maestro Gardiner for Polydor. Through this he established himself as an internationally sought-after Mozart tenor and sang at all major opera houses worldwide (Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra Bastille, Palais Garnier and Metropolitan Opera New York, as well as at the Maggio Musicale Florence and the Salzburg Festival).

Important past engagements include. Alfonso (in Schubert's "Alfonso and Estrella") in Cagliari, Fenton in Munich and at the Vienna State Opera, Flamand ("Capriccio") in Paris, Tamino in Tokyo, Athens, San Diego and Dresden, David ("Meistersinger") in Toulouse, Dionysos ("The Bassarids") at the Châtelet in Paris, Jaquino with Zubin Mehta at the opening of the Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia in Valencia in October 2006, Leukippos ("Daphne") in Amsterdam and "La clemenza di Tito" in Leipzig. In the service of contemporary music theater, he created the role of Calogero in the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn's "La grande magia" in Dresden, as well as the role of Orsino in the Munich premiere of Trojahn's "Was ihr wollt".

In the concert field, Rainer Trost is one of the most sought-after evangelists of his generation. Highlights of his activity as a concert singer have been engagements with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in the Musikhalle Hamburg, Tonhalle Zurich, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, in the Musikverein Vienna, Gasteig Munich, Prinzregententheater Munich and Gulbenkian Lisbon. He has worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Carlo Maria Giulini, Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman, Helmuth Rilling, Seiji Ozawa and Trevor Pinnock.

In addition to the already mentioned recording of "Così fan tutte" with J.E. Gardiner, the following recordings are available: "La clemenza di Tito" under Sir Charles Mackerras, "The Merry Widow" under J.E. Gardiner, Mendelssohn's "Paulus", Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" and "Fidelio" (under Sir Simon Rattle), as well as Schubert's "Die schöne Müllerin". Rainer Trost's latest CD recording was released in September 2008: In the series "Schubert's Friends" on Naxos Records, he sings songs by Franz Schubert, accompanied by Ulrich Eisenlohr. MusicWeb International wrote of it, "The tenor sings with a glow in his voice reminiscent of Fritz Wunderlich."

Rainer Trost is a regular guest at the Munich Opera Festival, where he sang Arbace in Dieter Dorn's highly acclaimed production of "Idomeneo" in the summer of 2009. The 2009/10 opera season began for him at the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden with a series of performances of "Il barbiere di Siviglia". At the Theater an der Wien he was able to add two roles to his extensive repertoire, appearing there for the first time as Pylades in Gluck's "Iphigénie en Tauride" and Alfred in the "Fledermaus". His concert schedule includes rarely performed works such as "Samuele" by Simon Mayr, as well as Mendelssohn's "Elijah" and Handel's "Messiah". At the Edinburgh Festival 2010 he will sing a concert performance of "Idomeneo" under the musical direction of Sir Charles Mackerras.

From March 01, 2021 to February 28, 2022 he was deputy head of the Institute for Voice and Music Theater at the mdw.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)-16.05.2023