THAISEN DAVID ANDREW RUSCH

Tenor | Opera, Concert and Oratorio

Sri Lankan-born and raised in Germany and Finland, tenor Thaisen Rusch received his first musical training at the Institute of Music Tapiola in Helsinki, studying voice with Christian Hauschild and Maaria Virmavirta before continuing his vocal development with Karl-Heinz Lampe of the NDR Chorus.

He began his 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. He also studied Lied interpretation in the class of Prof. Wolfram Rieger. Further artistic guidance came from the heldentenor Reiner Goldberg (Staatsoper Berlin), as well as masterclasses with Christine Schäfer, Irwin Gage and Peter Berne.

Rusch is an alumnus of the German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschenVolkes) and a former scholar of the Richard Wagner Society in Würzburg.

His first stage appearances took place at Theater Kiel in 2009, followed by engagements at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and regular guest appearances at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin’s Schiller Theater. There he performed, among other roles, the title character in Wolfgang Mitterer’s children’s opera Das tapfere Schneiderlein and appeared in Richard Strauss’ 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 Köhler). 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 Staatstheater Augsburg, where he appeared as Phillip Gjurka in Paul Abraham’s operetta Roxy und ihr Wunderteam (dir. Martin G. Berger), Mastro Trabuco in Verdi’s La forza del destino, Kilian in Weber’s Der Freischütz, and Martin Luther in Stephan Kanyar’s musical Herz aus Gold at the open-air stage Augsburg.

Alongside his operatic work, Rusch has established himself as a distinguished concert and recital singer.

His engagements have brought him to leading orchestras including the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra (cond. Christian Fröhlich), the Beethoven Academy Orchestra Kraków, the New Zurich Orchestra, as well as renowned period ensembles such as l’arte del mondo and Lautten Compagney Berlin.

He has appeared at international festivals including the Copenhagen Opera Festival and the International Week Graz, and has performed in major concert venues such as the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Finlandia Hall Helsinki, the Philharmonie im Gasteig Munich, Arena Bruneck / Italy, the Isarphilharmonie Munich and the Berlin Philharmonie.

At the Berlin Philharmonie he has appeared repeatedly as Evangelist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and as tenor soloist in the Mass in B Minor.

In December 2024 he made his debut in the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie with the Sinfonie Orchester Berlin under Stanley Chia-Ming Dodds, performing arias by Mozart, Verdi and Lehár in a festive gala concert.

In the autumn of 2025, Rusch recorded Schubert’s Winterreise, released on the Salzburg-based label Ars Vobiscum and available on major streaming platforms.

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 and under the artistic direction of Lakshman Joseph de Saram. The concert took place at the historic Galle Face Hotel in Colombo in support of the Rukmini Tissanayagam Trust and was attended by former Presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Thaisen Rusch is currently working closely with the Australian tenor Joel Scott (Deutsche Oper Berlin).

Among his most important and long-standing musical mentors are Professor Norbert Strolz and the conductor Christian Fröhlich.

He continues to draw important artistic inspiration from his collaborations with Jean-Christophe Charron (Detmold University of Music), Jamison Livsey (Deutsche Oper Berlin), the baritone Christian Miedl, and the German-Italian soprano Karola Pavone.

ChoralWork&EnsembleExperience

As an academist and later guest singer of the Rundfunkchor Berlin under Simon Halsey and Gijs Leenaars, Rusch gained extensive ensemble experience and participated in major concert projects with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin.

In 2017 he performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion with the Norske Solistkor under Grete Pedersen and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt.

From 2019 to 2022 he was a member of the Chorsolisten of the Komische Oper Berlin, where he appeared regularly as a soloist in productions by Barrie Kosky, including Candide, La Bohème, Der Rosenkavalier and the semi-staged production Mondnacht.

Since January 2023 he has sung as First Tenor in the historic chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he also continues to appear in solo assignments, most recently as the First Armed Man in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.

Teaching & Vocal Coaching

Alongside his artistic career, Rusch has been teaching since 2022 in the Faculty of Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt. Together with Jochen Roeper, he developed the interdisciplinary seminar Find Your Voice, combining artistic vocal practice with insights from neurophysiological research.

From 2023 to 2025 he also served as a lecturer at the annual Music Academy of the German National Merit Foundation under the artistic direction of Martin Wettges and worked as vocal coach for the Children’s Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Among his pedagogical achievements is the successful preparation of numerous young singers for entrance examinations at leading conservatories and universities of music, several of whom have gone on to pursue professional vocal studies.