Mika Kares has established himself as one of today’s internationally most sought-after basses. His vast repertoire covers all the great Italian and German composers such as Verdi, Wagner and Mozart, in addition to the most important roles of the slavic and Finnish tradition.

Distinguished by his colourful bass voice, Kares regularly guests at the most renowned houses and festivals worldwide and has worked with conductors including Christian Thielemann, Teodor Currentzis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Franz Welser-Möst, Sebastian Weigle, François-Xavier Roth, Klaus Mäkelä, Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko, Marco Armiliato and Thomas Guggeis.

Recent seasons’ opera highlights include i.a. Hagen Götterdämmerung at the Bayreuth Festival and the Vienna State Opera, Sarastro Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Il Commendatore Don Giovanni at The Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Salzburg Festival, Jacopo Fiesco Simon Boccanegra at the Opéra National de Paris (staging: Calixto Bieito), King Marke Tristan und Isolde, Padre Guardiano La forza del destino and Balthazar La Favorite at the Bavarian State Opera, Colline, La Boheme at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Gremin Eugene Onegin at the Vienna State Opera, Landgraf Hermann Tannhäuser at Zurich Opera, Zaccaria Nabucco at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Inquisitor The Fiery Angel at Teatro Real de Madrid, Great Inquisitor Don Carlo at Teatro alla Scala, and Ramfis Aida at Théâtre Royale de La Monnaie in Brussels.

In addition, Mika Kares is very sought after as a concert singer, his broad repertoire including key works such as 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, as well as Shostakovich’s Symphonies No 13 and 14.

Recent concert highlights include concerts with Tchaikovsky’s King René Iolanta with Kirill Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker and Prince de Bouillon Adriana Lecouvreur with Anna Netrebko and Marco Armiliato at the Salzburg Festival, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the hr-Sinfonieorchester as well as at the BBC Proms under the baton of Sakari Oramo, Mozart’s Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Riccardo Muti) and the Vienna Philharmonic, Shostakovich’s Symphony no 14 under Klaus Mäkelä with the Oslo Philharmonic, Mahler’s Symphony No 8 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu, as well as a concert performance of Bluebeard’s Castle with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki, which was released on CD (BIS Records) and nominated for the 2022 Grammy Award.

In season 2022/23 Mika Kares took on the title role in Bluebeard’s Castle at the Salzburg Festival as well as three roles (Fasolt Das Rheingold, Hunding Die Walküre, Hagen Götterdämmerung) in the new Ring at Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, conducted by Christian Thielemann and Thomas Guggeis, and staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov.

In addition, he returned to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Landgraf Hermann in Tannhäuser, the Bavarian State Opera as Heinrich der Vogler in a new Lohengrin production, and to Vienna State Opera as Hagen in Götterdämmerung.

Engagements in season 2023/24 include his return to Chicago’s Lyric Opera as Daland Der fliegende Holländer, the Opéra national de Paris as Timur Turandot and Fiesco Simon Boccanegra, and Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin for two new productions: Dvorák’s Rusalka Vodník (Mundruczó/Ticciati) and Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina Ivan (Guth/Young).

In Summer 2024, in addition, he will return to the Bayreuth Festival (Hagen Götterdämmerung), the Savonlinna Opera Festival (Zaccaria Nabucco and Commendatore Don Giovanni) and the Salzburg Festival, where he will be on stage as La Roche in Strauss’ Capriccio under the baton of Christian Thielemann. Furthermore he can be heard singing the bass part in Verdi‘s Messa da Requiem with the Gewandhausorchester under Franz Welser-Möst.

 Mika Kares was shortlisted as Male Singer of the Year at the 2023 International Opera Awards.