Thaisen David Andrew Rusch
Sri Lankan-born and raised in Germany and Finland, Thaisen Rusch received his first musical training at the Institute of Music Tapiola in Helsinki, studying voice with Christian Hauschild and Maaria Virmavirta, later continuing with Karl-Heinz Lampe of the NDR Chorus in Hamburg.
He began his vocal studies at the Lübeck University of Music and completed his Master’s degree in 2014 at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, where he studied with Prof. Scot Weir and Júlia Várady. Further artistic guidance came from Reiner Goldberg, as well as masterclasses with Christine Schäfer, Irwin Gage and Peter Berne.
He is a former fellow of the German National Merit Foundation and the Richard Wagner Society in Wuerzburg.
Rusch made his first stage appearances in 2009 at Theater Kiel and in 2012 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, followed by regular engagements at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in the Schiller Theater. There he performed, among other roles, the title character in Wolfgang Mitterer’s children’s opera Das tapfere Schneiderlein and appeared in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos during the 2015/16 season.
In 2016/17 he joined the ensemble of Theater Altenburg–Gera, singing Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (dir. Axel Koehler). In the summer of 2017 he made his debut as the Evangelist in C. P.E. Bach’s St John Passion with the Staatskapelle Weimar under Kirill Karabits in a production directed by Philipp Harnoncourt.
From 2017 to 2019 he was a member of the ensemble of the Staatstheater Augsburg, where he performed the leading role of Phillip Gjurka in Paul Abraham’s operetta Roxy und ihr Wunderteam (dir. Martin G. Berger), a production praised by Bavarian Radio.
Alongside his stage work, Rusch has established himself as a distinguished concert and recital singer.
He has appeared with leading orchestras such as the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic (cond. Christian Froehlich), the Beethoven Academy Orchestra Kraków, the New Zurich Orchestra and renowned Baroque ensembles including l’arte del mondo and the Lautten Compagney Berlin.
His performances have taken him to major international venues such as the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Finlandia Hall Helsinki, the Gasteig Philharmonie Muenchen (Das klagende Lied), the Isarphilharmonie Muenchen (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), the Konzerthaus Berlin (Cherubini Gala) and regular appearances at the Berlin Philharmonie, including as Evangelist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and as tenor soloist in the Mass in B minor.
As an academist and later guest of the Berlin Radio Choir under Gijs Leenaars and Simon Halsey, Rusch gained extensive ensemble experience and participated in major projects with theBerlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
From 2019 to 2022 he was a member of the Chorsolisten of the Komische Oper Berlin.
Since January 2023 he has been singing as First Tenor in the historic chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
In addition to his performance career, he teaches in the Faculty of Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt, offering the interdisciplinary seminar Find Your Voice in collaboration with Prof. Jochen Roeper.
He is also a lecturer at the annual Music Academy of the German National Merit Foundation in Brixen.
In the autumn of 2025, Rusch recorded Schubert’s Winterreise, to be released by the Salzburg-based label Ars Vobiscum.
Beginning with the 2025/26 season, he serves as Artist in Residence with the Sinfonisches Kammerorchester Berlin (SKOB) under Chief Conductor Thorsten Putscher.
In December 2025, Thaisen Rusch returned to his native Sri Lanka for a homecoming concert with Jeremy Bines, at the invitation of the Chamber Music Society of Colombo, under the artistic direction of Lakshman Joseph de Saram, at the historic Galle Face Hotel in Colombo. The concert, in support of the Rukmini Tissanayagam Trust,took place in the presence of former Presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe.
