The young bass Johannes Wiedecke was born in 1978 in Bad Oldesloe, Northern Germany. He studied singing with Siegfried Lorenz and Elisabeth Bengtson-Opitz at the Hamburg University for Music and Theatre. While still pursuing his studies he was engaged as a guest-soloist at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven and at the Hamburger Kammeroper and in 2003 was a prize winner of the International Singing Competition “Alexander Girardi”.

From 2003 until 2006/07 Johannes was a member of the Vienna Staatsoper and was awarded a scholarship by the Herbert von Karajan-Centre from the season of 2003/04 until 2005/06.

At the Vienna Staatsoper Johannes appeared in more than 30 roles such as Fafner in Siegfried, Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro, Peneios in Daphne, Colas in Bastien und Bastienne, Sarastro in The Magic Flute for children (conductors: Seiji Ozawa, Fabio Luisi), Jorg in Verdi`s Stiffelio alongside Jose Cura and Renato Bruson (conductor: Marco Armilliato), Tom in Un Ballo in Maschera, Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette alongside Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon under the baton of Bertrand de Billy.

At the Vienna Volksoper Johannes sang Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro and Sarastro in The Magic Flute under Marc Piollet. In 2005, he made his debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Peneios in Daphne by Richard Strauss under Christian Thielemann.

At the Opera Festival Klosterneuburg 2007 Johannes made his role debut as Rocco in Fidelio. His busy activities as a guest soloist have also led him to the Theater Freiburg as Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, to the Theater Kiel as Rocco in Fidelio and for a new production of I Puritani to the Teatre Principal de Mao on Menorca, singing the part of Valton alongside Franco Vasallo, John Osborn and Mariola Cantarero conducted by Michele Mariotti.

Johannes Wiedecke has been engaged as first bass at the  State Theatre 'Am Gärtnerplatz' in Munich since the season of 2007/08, where he started with roles such as Osmin, Sarastro, Colline and Basilio. In 2008/09,  he  was first cast Dulcamara in L'Elisir D'Amore, Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, Scalza in Boccaccio and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd. In the season of 2009/10 his new roles at the 'Gärtnerplatz'  are Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Joe in a new production of Weill’s Mahagonny (first cast) and Massimiliano in Verdi’s I Masnadieri.

In November 2008, Johannes Wiedecke was engaged as soloist in Rossini`s „Stabat Mater“ at the Teatre Principale de Palma on Mallorca under the baton of Gernot Schulz.

Johannes has appeared in many concert performances for example in Ravenna, Zaragossa, St. Petersburg , at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Herodes Atticus in Athens and at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and  has worked with many prominent conductors such as Peter Schneider, Franz Welser-Möst, Seiji Ozawa, Donald Runnicles, Stefan Soltesz, Marco Armilliato, Simon Rattle, Fabio Luisi, Marcello Viotti, Graeme Jenkins, Daniele Gatti, Renato Palumbo, Jun Märkl, Alfred Eschwé, Michele Mariotti, Simone Young and Julia Jones.

In a DVD recording of the Vienna State Opera’s  production of Bastien und Bastienne Johannes Wiedecke took part as Colas.

Last Update: November 2009