KS Miljenko
Turk

The Croatian baritone KS Miljenko Turk completed his vocal studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and continued his training with Hans Sotin at the Cologne University of Music. In 2004, he made his debut at Semperoper Dresden in "Celan" and at the Bayreuth Festival in "Parsifal". This was followed in 2005 by appearances at the Garsington Opera Festival in "Le comte Ory" and at Volksoper Wien in "Der Graf von Luxemburg". From 2001 to 2010, Miljenko Turk was a member of the Cologne Opera ensemble for the first time, where he received the Offenbach Prize in 2006 in recognition of his artistic achievements. From 2006 onwards, he appeared, among others, at the Salzburg Festival ("La finta semplice" / "L’oca del Cairo"), Oper Leipzig, and the Bayreuth Festival. The baritone also maintains a broad concert repertoire and has appeared repeatedly at the Cologne Philharmonie, Munich’s Gasteig, and the Tonhalle Düsseldorf.

Since 2015, he has once again been a member of the Cologne Opera ensemble. Cologne audiences know him, among others, as Napoleon in "War and Peace", Marcello in "La Bohème", Harlequin in "Ariadne auf Naxos", Eumaios in "Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria", Don Giovanni, Guglielmo in "Così fan tutte", Papageno in "Die Zauberflöte", Gabriel von Eisenstein / Dr. Falke in "Die Fledermaus", Sigismund Sülzheimer in "Im weißen Rössl", Fieramosca in "Benvenuto Cellini", and Wolfram von Eschenbach in "Tannhäuser". In Wolfgang Rihm’s "Jakob Lenz", performed at Trinitatiskirche, he sang the title role, while in Rihm’s "Die Eroberung von Mexico" he portrayed Cortez. In 2019, he appeared as Walter Benjamin in Peter Ruzicka’s opera "Benjamin" as a guest artist at Theater Heidelberg. His Cologne repertoire also includes Valentin in Gounod’s "Faust", Frank / Fritz in Korngold’s "Die tote Stadt", the Broom Maker in "Hänsel und Gretel", Le Dancaïre in "Carmen", Claudio in Berlioz’s "Béatrice et Bénédict", Mirza / Myrtenmirza in the German premiere of "Der Gesang der Zauberinsel", Marcello in "La Bohème", John in the world premiere of Arnaud Petit’s "La Bête dans la Jungle", David Hennessy in Frank Pesci’s "The Strangers", Count Danilo in "Die lustige Witwe", the Donkey in the children’s opera "Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten", and several featured roles in the world premiere of Philippe Manoury’s "Die letzten Tage der Menschheit".

At Teatro Massimo Palermo and the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, he sang the role of Melot in "Tristan und Isolde". At the Croatian National Theatre Zagreb, he appeared as Papageno in "Die Zauberflöte". He also reprised the role of Haudy in Calixto Bieito’s staged version of Zimmermann’s "Die Soldaten", presented at the Cologne Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and the Philharmonie de Paris. At Oper Leipzig, he appeared as Ottokar in "Der Freischütz".

During the 25/26 season, he performed Papageno in "Die Zauberflöte", Donner in "Das Rheingold", the Father in "Hänsel und Gretel", and Artisan / Collector in the German premiere of George Benjamin’s "Picture a day like this".

In the 26/27 season, he will appear as Herr von Faninal in Richard Strauss’ "Der Rosenkavalier", the opening production marking Cologne Opera’s return to Offenbachplatz. He will also perform the roles of Telescope Vendor / Stilt Walker / Don Alfonso / Senator / Theatre Director in Hans Werner Henze’s "La Piccola Cubana", presented to mark the composer’s 100th birthday, as well as Krušina in "The Bartered Bride" in Laurent Pelly’s production, a co-production with Teatro Real, Opéra national de Lyon, and Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie. In addition, he will sing Papageno in Michael Hampe’s fairy-tale production of Mozart’s "Die Zauberflöte" and the Gamekeeper in Dvořák’s "Rusalka" in Nadja Loschky’s production. At the Cologne Children’s Opera, he will perform the role of King Günther from the East in the world premiere of Philipp Matthias Kaufmann’s "Der König verschenkt was", a commissioned work celebrating the opening of the newly built, one-of-a-kind Children’s Opera at Offenbachplatz.

In May 2022, he was awarded the honorary title of Kammersänger by the City of Cologne.