Tigran Matinyan is a Moscow-born tenor based in the Netherlands, whose work spans early music, chamber music, oratorio and opera.
His artistic profile combines specialist training in historically informed performance with more than three decades of stage experience. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach occupies a central place in his work: he regularly performs the role of the Evangelist and the tenor arias in both the St Matthew and St John Passions, and also appears as a soloist in the Christmas Oratorio and numerous cantatas. His repertoire further ranges from Monteverdi and Handel to Mozart, Haydn, Rossini, Schumann and contemporary composers.
His stage career began in childhood at Moscow’s Mark Zakharov Lenkom Theatre. At sixteen he joined the theatre’s permanent vocal ensemble and remained with the company for more than twenty years, appearing in ensemble and solo roles. This extensive experience in music theatre shaped his approach to singing, in which vocal expression, text and dramatic action are closely connected. Alongside his work at Lenkom, he spent seven years as a soloist with Madrigal, the early-music ensemble of the Moscow Philharmonic.
Matinyan studied at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In 2015 he moved to the Netherlands, where he completed a Master’s degree in Early Music Vocal Studies and an Artist Diploma at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. His teachers included Peter Kooij, Michael Chance and Gerda van Zelm.
He has worked with conductors including Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe, Daniel Reuss, Andrew Lawrence-King and Peter Neumann, and with ensembles such as Cappella Amsterdam, Collegium Vocale Gent and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. His ensemble work also encompasses Renaissance polyphony and a cappella repertoire.
Since 2019 he has been a member of the Chorus of Dutch National Opera, while maintaining an active solo career. At DNO he has also appeared in solo roles in Puccini’s Il trittico and Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orléans.