Tuncay Kurtoğlu

Turkish bass Tuncay Kurtoğlu studied music in Ankara, where he has been an ensemble member of the State Opera since 1989. He has received numerous awards in his home country, including "Artist of the Year" in 2010 and 2011 and "Best Opera Singer" in 2016. He was a finalist at the Belvedere Singing Competition in 2002 and won the prize for "Best Romantic Interpretation" at the Tchaikovsky Competition. He is a prize laureate of the 2004 Francisco Vinas Competition and also received prizes at the Valsesia Musica Competition. He has received great acclaim in his famed role of Osmin in "Die Entführung aus dem Serail", a role which he has performed for over 15 years on many stages, including tours to South Korea, China, Italy, Russia and Estonia. Between 2011 and 2015, he performed various roles at the Hamburg State Opera, including The Grand Inquisitor ("Don Carlos"), Pistola ("Falstaff") and Bartolo ("Le nozze die Figaro"). At Stadttheater Gießen, he performed the role of Yunus Güner in the comtemporary opera "Gegen die Wand" by Ludger Vollmer, and sang the role of Don Pizzaro ("Fidelio") in the Expat Philharmonic Orchestra's (EPO) tour to Germany. This season, he makes his Wiesbaden debut as Samuel in "Un ballo in maschera" and Nightwatchman in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg".