Martin Koch

The tenor studied singing at the Cologne University of Music with Prof. Josef Protschka and Prof. P.-C. Runge. Since the beginning of the 2009.10 season, he has been a member of the ensemble at the Cologne Opera; prior to that, he was a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf. Guest engagements have taken him to the Bregenz Festival, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Semperoper Dresden, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Bonn Opera, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, to Bremen and the Staatstheater Wiesbaden. In the summer of 2012, he made a successful debut at the Bregenz Festival as Snaut in the world premiere of D. Glanert's ‘Solaris’. He could be heard in this role at the Cologne Opera in 2014.15. He made a guest appearance as Mime in Robert Carsen's ‘Ring des Nibelungen’ at the Expo in Shanghai.
Another particular success in 2014 was his invitation to the Komische Oper Berlin, where he made his role debut as Desportes in ‘Die Soldaten’. He also played this role at the International May Festival in Wiesbaden in 2016. He previously made his debut at the Semperoper Dresden as Robert Hot in ‘Hot’ by Friedrich Goldmann, and at the Staatstheater Mainz he made a guest appearance as David (‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’). But he has also appeared at his main theatre in Cologne, as well as at the Bonn Opera and the Rheinoper in Düsseldorf, in roles including David, 1st Knight of the Grail, Jaquino, Pedrillo, Monostatos, 1st Jew, Dr Cajus, Pong, Tanzmeister, Lippo Fiorentino (‘Street Scene’).
He also enjoyed great success at the Cologne Opera in 2018 and 2020 with his sold-out solo evenings ‘Adam Schaf hat Angst’ and ‘Mit Kreisler im Nachtzug von Wien nach Milano’.
In spring 2018, the versatile tenor could be heard again at the Cologne Opera and at the Teatro Real Madrid as Desportes (‘Die Soldaten’). In the following season, he also made his debut in Cologne as Siegfried in the ‘Ring for Children’. For the opening of the 2021.22 season, Martin Koch made his debut as Matteo (‘Arabella’) at the Bonn Opera, where he also appeared as Fatty (‘Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny’). He also made guest appearances at Theater Münster as the 1st Stranger (Der Vetter aus Dingsda) and at Deutsche Oper am Rhein as Harlequin (Der Kaiser von Atlantis). At his Cologne opera house, his roles in the 2022.23 season included Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), the title role in Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg (in which he made his debut) and as Monostatos (‘The Magic Flute’). At the Dortmund Opera House, he made guest appearances in the operetta gala and at the Braunschweig State Theatre in the new production of Francaix's ‘The Limping Devil’ as the devil.
In the 2023.24 season, he could be heard at the Cologne Opera as Billy O'Connor in the world premiere of Frank Pesci's ‘The Strangers’ and as Spoletta in ‘Tosca’. At the Bonn Opera, the long-awaited new production of ‘Moses and Aron’ followed with Martin Koch as Aron. He performed the role of Desportes in Die Soldaten at the Cologne Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Philharmonie de Paris. At the Bayreuth Festival in 2024, he sang Heinrich der Schreiber in Tannhäuser and Erik in the children's opera Der fliegende Holländer. His most recent roles in Cologne also include Aegisth in Elektra.