Danish tenor Valdemar Villadsen graduated from the soloist class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He has since established himself as an in-demand tenor throughout Europe.
Engagements have brought him to the Staatsoper Berlin - Unter den Linden, Royal Danish Opera, La Monnaie, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Oper Kiel, and concert halls such as the Royal Albert Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and festivals such as the Bergen International Festival, Styriarte Festival in Graz, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Heinrich Schütz Musikfest, Rossini Festival, Open Air Opera Berlin, Festival de Música Antigua, Copenhagen Opera Festival, and Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden. He has performed acclaimed solo recitals in Paris, Rome, Istanbul, Berlin and Basel.
His opera roles include Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lindoro in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, Don Ramiro in Rossini's La Cenerentola, Gualtiero in Bellini’s Il pirata, Castor in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, the title role in Rameau’s Pigmalion, Glaucus in Leclair’s Scylla et Glaucus, Apollo in Cavalli’s Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne, Seth in Franz Danksagmüller’s Nova – Imperfecting Perfection, Blake in Bernard Foccroulle’s Cassandra, Asger in Signe Lykke’s Nordkraft, Adam in Svend Nielsen’s Chains and the Officer in Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten.
Villadsen is a sought-after concert and oratorio singer and has made a particular name for himself as Evangelist in Bach’s Passions. He has performed the Evangelist and tenor parts in Bach’s Passions in Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, including at the Berliner Philharmonie. He is also sought after for the demanding tenor part in Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Villadsen has worked with conductors such as Giancarlo Andretta, Julius Rudel, Christian Vásquez, Fabio Luisi, Anja Bihlmaier, Alessandro Amoretti, Christina Pluhar, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Paul Hillier, Václav Luks, Michael Hofstetter, Andrew Lawrence-King, Carlos Mena, Javier Illan, Benjamin Bayl, Michael Hell, Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch, David Riddell, Mark Tatlow, Christian Kluxen, Matthew Toogood, Stefan Parkman, Johannes Gustavsson, Kazushi Ono, Peter Spissky, Florian Helgath, Johannes Wildner and Zsolt Hamar, and with opera directors such as Vasily Barkhatov, Lucinda Childs, Elisabeth Linton and Sir David McVicar.
The season 2024/25 included a leading role in Bernard Foccroulle’s new opera Cassandra at Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Styriarte Festival in Graz, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with The Danish Sinfonietta, Die Jahreszeiten-Oper (Vivaldi-Pasticcio) at the Styriarte Festival in Graz, Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion in Paris, Evangelist in Bach's St Matthew Passion in Denmark and Germany, the Rossini Gala Concert in Zaragoza, the baroque concert Venedig in Berlin in the Berliner Philharmonie, as well as solo concerts throughout Europe.
In the 2025/26 season, Valdemar was on parental leave for most of the season and therefore appeared only in a few selected concerts, including Handel’s Messiah with Camerata Copenhagen and Brahms’ Liebeslieder-Walzer in Berlin. The album Sounds of Eggenberg with ÄrtHouse 17, featuring Valdemar as vocal soloist, was also nominated for the 2026 International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in the category Baroque Vocal Album of the Year.
Villadsen founded the ensemble Valdemar Villadsen & Friends, bringing together some of the world’s leading early music specialists, including the internationally renowned Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamazov, known among other things for his collaborations with Sting. The ensemble released the internationally acclaimed debut single Valdemar Villadsen & Friends, featuring Renaissance music, on the Italian record label Halidon Music. The ensemble’s debut album is scheduled for release in 2027.
As a stage director, Villadsen’s work spans opera, theatre and music theatre. His directing credits include Puccini’s La bohème and Brecht/Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper for Bornholms Musikforening, Kurt Weill Factory at the Hamburger Kammeroper, Pop Up’era – À la Cravate, a site-specific opera production conceived and directed by Villadsen for Open Air Opera Berlin, a Kurt Weill production at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, subsequently presented at Copenhagen’s Betty Nansen Theatre, and a workshop production of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. For more than twenty years, Sir David McVicar has been an important mentor to Villadsen as a stage director. McVicar describes him as “intelligent, perceptive and imaginative, with strong theatrical instincts”, adding: “I believe Valdemar Villadsen can establish himself as a director of real distinction. He has much to offer opera, and I recommend him wholeheartedly.”
Alongside his career as a singer and stage director, Villadsen has also established himself as an artistic leader and cultural entrepreneur. From 2022 to 2024, he served as Artistic Director of the Berlin-based opera initiative Open Air Opera, where he conceived and produced innovative opera projects and developed new formats for audience engagement.
Valdemar Villadsen is based in Berlin.