The Icelandic tenor Jon Ketilsson trained at the New Music School in Reykjavik. Then he continued his singing studies in Vienna and finished them by receiving the opera diploma of the University for music and performing arts.
Since then he has performed throughout Europe and has been involved in numerous radio, CD and TV recordings. His opera debut took place at the Prague State Opera with the role of Alfredo in “La Traviata”. His repertoire includes the title role in Offenbach´s Tales of Hoffmann, Macduff / Macbeth, Radamès / Aida, title role in Don Carlo, Rodolfo / La Bohéme, Énée / Les Troyens, Bacchus / Ariadne auf Naxos, Sergei / Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, along with Tamino, Erik, Mdx, Don José, Pinkerton and Cavaradossi.
His extensive concert repertoire includes Beethoven´s ninth Symphony, Handel´s Messiah, Mendelssohn´s Elijah as well as the Mozart, Dvorák and Verdi Requiems.
In 1997 Jon Ketilsson was engaged at the Operahouse of Dortmund and from 1998 to 2000 he was a member of the ensemble of the Cologne Opera. To date Jon Ketilsson has performed with Antonio Pappano, Jeffrey Tate, Sylvain Cambreling, Jesus Lopes Cobos, Ralf Weikert, Philippe Auguin, Bertrand de Billy, Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur and Fabio Luisi. !
Jon Ketilsson has performed with Frankfurt Opera / Freischütz, Essen / M. Butterfly and Karlsruhe /Erik/Dalibor, the Theater and der Wien, the Opéra du Rhin / Bacchus, the Opéra de Lausanne /Bacchus, Max, the Teatro National de Sao Carlos in Lisbon / Les Troyens, the opera house in Gothenburg / Aida and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Mr. Ketilsson has performed Carmen with both the Théatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels with A. Pappano and the Grand Théatre Genéve. In the summer of 2000 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in the role of Énée in Les Troyens, by H. Berlioz (H. Wernicke / S. Cambreling). Recent performances include Königssohn /Königskinder at the San Carlo Opera in Napoli, Erik at the Icelandic Music Festival, Radamès / Aida in the opening production of the new operahouse in Copenhagen, Froh / Das Rheingold at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Les Troyens at the Bastille-Opera in Paris, Florestan in Marseille and Gothenburg, Hermann/ Neues vom Tage in Ancona. Jason/ Medea at the Hellenic Festival, and Kaiser / Frau ohne Schatten in Brussels and Semperoper Dresden.
His Wagner Repertory includes : Erik, Parsifal, Rienzi, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Tristan…