Ralf Lukas is highly sought after as one of today’s leading Bass-baritones and Heldenbaritones, receiving great acclaim for his interpretations of roles such as Hans Sachs in Wagner’s „The Mastersingers of Nuremberg“, Wotan and Wanderer in „The Ring of the Nibelung“.
Born into a musical family in Bayreuth, he studied at the Hochschule der Kuenste Berlin with the celebrated teachers Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann and Hans Hotter. Early success came in 1991 when he was awarded first prize at the International Vocal Competition s’Hertogenbosch.
Until 2002 Ralf Lukas was a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where his roles included Papageno (Die Zauberfloete), Leporello (Don Giovanni) Donner (Das Rheingold), Biterolf (Tannhaeuser) and Beckmesser (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg). After this he went on to sing with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and conductors including Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Colin Davis, Armin Jordan, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Seiji Ozawa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Christian Thielemann.
Since 2006 he has appeared annually at the Bayreuth Festival, singing the roles of Donner, Gunther (Twilight of the Gods) and Melot (Tristan and Isolde). For Staatstheater Darmstadt in 2008 he made his long awaited debut in the role of Hans Sachs (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) to great critical acclaim.
Also highly sought after as a concert singer, with a stylistically wide repertoire, he appears regularly in the major concert venues of the world including Berlin, Brussels, Hamburg, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Sao Paulo and Vienna, and has participated at the festivals of Montpelliers, Lucerne, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein and the BBC London Proms. He has taken part in numerous radio and television recordings for ZDF, SFB, MDR, BR, Radio France, RAI and RTE.