Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory, coached by Margreet Honig. He continued his studies with KS Robert Holl, Elio Battaglia and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
A regular guest at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, he has appeared there as Papageno in Simon McBurney's production ofDie Zauberflöte(which earned him the Prix d’Amis),Schaunard inLa Bohème,Fritz Kothner inDie Meistersinger von Nürnbergand, most recently, Peter in Hänsel und Gretel.
Other recent opera highlights include Schaunard at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Il Conte di Almaviva inLe Nozze di Figaro and the title role in Thomas’Hamlet at the Göteborg Opera, Papageno at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Guglielmo inCosi fan tutte and Donner inDas Rheingold at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Hercule in Gluck’sAlcesteat Teatro Real in Madrid, Ramiro in a concert version ofL'heure espagnole with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Lescaut inManonat the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and Gonsalvo Fieschi in Schreker'sDie Gezeichnetenat the Salzburger Festspiele.
Elsewhere, he has performed Eisenstein inDie Fledermaus and Marcello inLa Bohème at the Opéra National du Rhin, Figaro inLe Nozze di Figaro and Figaro inIl Barbiere di Siviglia for Scottish Opera, Harlequin inAriadne auf Naxos at the Opéra National du Rhin, Gunther inGötterdämmerungat the Nationale Reisopera and Frank inDie tote Stadt at the Opéra national de Lorraine. He has sung lead roles in world-premieres of contemporary composers such as Peter-Jan Wagemans, Rob Zuidam and Martijn Padding.
Equally in demand in concert repertoire, his most recent engagements include Mendelssohn’sEliaswith the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor (released on Accentus in March 2016), as well as the Royal Liverpool Phiharmonic and Vasili Petrenko, Bach’sMatthäus-Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Ivor Bolton, as well as with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler'sLieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with The Hague Philharmonic, songs from Mahler’sDes Knaben Wunderhornwith the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo, BeethovenSymphonyNo.9with the Orchestre National de Lille, the KIOI-Sinfonietta in Tokyo and the Dresdner Philharmonie, Frère Laurent inRoméo etJuliette and Joseph inL'Enfance du Christby Berlioz with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Pater Ecstaticus inMahler’s 8th Symphony with the Bochumer Symphoniker, Christus in theJohannes-Passion with the Orchestra of the 18th century, Mahler’sKindertotenlieder with Holland Symfonia and Frank Martin’s Suitefrom Der Sturmwith the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse.
Thomas Oliemans has worked with conductors as Charles Dutoit, Jiři Bělohlávek, Hans-Christoph Rademann , Ingo Metzmacher, Semyon Bychkov, Pablo Heras-Casado, Paolo Carignani, Marc Albrecht, Ivor Bolton, Frans Brüggen, Hartmut Haenchen, Edo de Waart, Kent Nagano, Jaap van Zweden, Reinbert de Leeuw, James Gaffigan, Markus Poschner and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and stage directors such as Robert Carsen, Simon McBurney, Christof Loy, Willy Decker, Pierre Audi, Philipp Himmelmann, David Alden, Sir Thomas Allen, Stephen Langridge and Laurent Pelly.
A sought-after recitalist, he appears with pianists Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, Rudolf Jansen and Paolo Giacometti, amongst others, in Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, Zürich, Basle, Antwerp, Lübeck, London (Wigmore Hall), Tokyo and Paris. A regular guest at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, he recently presented together with Malcolm Martineau the three main Schubert song-cycles there within the course of a week, as well as Wolf and Schumann recitals.
His discography includes Schubert’s Winterreise and Schwanengesang, an album of song cycles by Francis Poulenc and Gabriel Fauré with pianist Malcolm Martineau, entitled Mirages, substantial contributions to vols 3, 4 and 5 of the Complete Poulenc-series by Signum Classics, an album with the Schumann cycles op 89, 90 and 48, with pianist Paolo Giacometti, Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Akamus Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor under Hans-Georg Rademann, works by Frank Martin for baritone with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Christus in Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and Frans Brüggen and Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Gordan Nikolic.
Highlights in the 2018/19 season include returns to Dutch National Opera and English National Opera as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, to the Festival Aix-en-Provence and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Mr Redburn, recitals with Malcolm Martineau at the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam,in Madrid, Toronto and New York, amongst other places, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with the Dutch Chamber Choir and Peter Dijkstra and Thomas Larcher’s Symphony for Baritone and Orchester, Alle Tage, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Thomas Oliemans will also curate the 2019 Delft Chamber Music Festival.