Johann Tilli was born in Kerimäki, Finland. In 1987, he took second prize in the national Lappeenranta Singing competition and first prize in the Timo Mustakallio Singing competition . In 1990, he took first prize again in the Kangasniemi Competition and in 1991 was awarded the first ever Martti Talvela Prize. In 2002, Johann Tilli was awarded the prestigious Theo Adam Prize in Dresden. Awarded only once every four years, this prize recognises specific success in Wagnerian roles. Johann Tilli has been a regular guest at both the Savonlinna Opera Festival and Helsinki’s Finnish National Opera where he has sung Sarastro, Banquo, Landgraf, Aida and the Judge in Salinnen’s The Horseman and in Helsinki Fafner/Siegfried, Fasolt, Hunding and Grand Inquisitor. Johann Tilli commenced his international career as a contract artist in Hamburg where he built up a wide and varied repertoire of Wagner, Verdi, Beethoven and Mozart roles before performing as a guest artist in many of Europe’s main opera houses: in Berlin at both the Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper, at Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper, in Köln, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Zurich as well as in Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Montpellier, Amsterdam, Brussels and Tel Aviv. Since 1998 Johann Tilli has been a guest artist at the Semperoper Dresden where he has sung Rocco, Sarastro, Ramphis, König Heinrich, Landgraf, Pogner, Fasolt, Zaccaria, Daland, Hunding and Gurnemanz. As a concert artist, Johann Tilli has performed regularly throughout Europe and America and has worked with such esteemed conductors as Abbado, Harnoncourt, Bychkov, Sir Andrew Davis, the late Giuseppe Sinopoli, Jeffrey Tate und Christian Thielemann. His repertoire includes works by Bach, Berlioz, Rossini, Verdi, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Haydn and Dvorak. Johann Tilli has recorded with Deutsche Grammophon, Bis, Sony Classical, Finlandia Records, Orfeo and Capriccio. Future projects include Rheingold and Euryanthe in Dresden, Wozzeck at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Aulis Salinnen’s The Horseman in Moscow and Tannhauser in Barcelona.