Finnish bass Mika Kares studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and was a member of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe from 2005 to 2010. His operatic roles include Hagen (Götterdämmerung), Hunding (Die Walküre), Fafner (Siegfried), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Hermann (Tannhäuser), King Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Heinrich der Vogler (Lohengrin), the Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Jacopo Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Zaccaria (Nabucco), King René (Iolanta), Ivan (Khovanshchina), and Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle) — a role he recorded for BIS in 2021, earning a Grammy Award nomination.Mika Kares is also active as a concert artist, performing a wide-ranging repertoire that includes Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 13 and 14.During the 2025–2026 season, he will perform the roles of Fasolt, Hunding, and Hagen in Berlin and Bayreuth, Daland (Der fliegende Holländer) in Bayreuth, and King René in Helsinki.At the Paris Opera: Il trovatore (Ferrando), 2018; Simon Boccanegra (Jacopo Fiesco), 2018, 2024; Turandot (Timur), 2023; Das Rheingold (Fafner), 2025.

Mika KaresBass