Tenor Kai Kluge began his musical training with the Aurelius Boys’ Choir in Calw, where he gained his first experience performing on both national and international stages. He studied at the Karlsruhe University of Music under Prof. Friedemann Röhlig and earned his bachelor’s degree in voice and opera with honors. He gained further inspiration through master classes with Prof. Regina Werner-Dietrich, Peter Berne, Roberto Sacca, Thomas Hampson, and KS Christa Ludwig.
While still a student, he was engaged by the Opera Studio of the Staatstheater Karlsruhe, where he sang Remendado in Bizet’s “Carmen” and Pedrillo in Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio”.
For the 2016/17 season, he joined the opera studio of the Staatstheater Stuttgart and has been a permanent member of the ensemble there since the 2017/18 season. There he has enjoyed great success in major roles such as Tamino in “The Magic Flute”, Ottavio in “Don Giovanni”, Lurcanio in “Ariodante”, Alfredo in “La Traviata”, the Prince in “The Love for Three Oranges”, Alfred in “Die Fledermaus”, and the Italian Singer in “Der Rosenkavalier”.
Recently, he has added major roles such as the Duke in “Rigoletto,” Jim in “Mahagonny,” Max in “Der Freischütz”, the Prince in “Rusalka” and David in “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”.
His guest engagements to date have taken him to opera houses in Bonn, Kiel, Bremen, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Wiesbaden, Basel, and Klagenfurt. His stand-in performance as Nemorino in “L’elisir d’amore” at the Semperoper in Dresden is particularly noteworthy. He opened the 2025/26 season at the Hamburg State Opera in the role of the Narrator in the staged production of “Das Paradies und die Peri” (Tobias Kratzer/Omer Meir Wellber); the production is still available to stream on ARTE.
As part of his busy concert schedule, he has already performed at the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
Kai Kluge will remain a long-term member of the ensemble at the Stuttgart State Opera; he will return to the Hamburg State Opera and make his debut with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.