Thomas Cooley

Thomas Cooley, tenor, was born in Minnesota and studied voice at the university there, then at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich. He has participated in master classes in Aldeburgh, England, with Anthony Rolfe-Johnson and Ian Partridge, and has studied the art of Lieder singing with Peter Schreier and Rudolf Piernay. His operatic repertoire encompasses Mozart, Rossini, Handel and Monteverdi. He was a member of the company at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich from 2002–06. The major works by Monteverdi, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Britten are at the center of his repertoire, with a special emphasis on the Bach Evangelist roles and the great tenor parts in Handel. Important recent concert engagements included Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under Helmuth Rilling in Carnegie Hall, Haydn’s Nelson Mass under Welser-Möst, Britten’s War Requiem with the Munich Bach Chor, Edward Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the Sing-Akademie Berlin and Penderecki’s Credo, conducted by the composer. Thomas Cooley has also devoted himself to the art song, and he has made several recordings for Bayerischer Rundfunk, including Britten’s Holy Sonnets of John Donne and his Michelangelo Sonnets, Brahms Liebesliederwalzer and Schubert songs.