CANADIAN BASS-BARITONE KAREL MARTIN LUDVIK IS KNOWN FOR HIS DIVERSE REPERTOIRE, RANGING FROM BACH AND WAGNER TO NUMEROUS CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS.
A member of the ensemble at the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen since 2016, he has developed a vast repertoire encompassing over sixty-five roles and is and a regular guest at opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe and North America.
International guest engagements have taken place at the Bavarian State Opera Munich, Semperoper Dresden, Oper Leipzig, Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Oper Köln, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Dutch National Opera Amsterdam, Theater Dortmund, Hannover State Opera, Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, Theater Basel, Tyrolean State Opera Innsbruck, Hessen State Opera Wiesbaden, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Oldenburg State Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Merkin Hall New York, Rotterdam Opera Festival, Mozart Festival Augsburg among others.
Concert appearances include Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Essen, Mosel Musikfestival, De Doelen Rotterdam, Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Musikforum Ruhr Bochum, Circulo de Bellas Artes Madrid, Palau Moja Barcelona, Harpa Reykjavik as well as Montreal’s Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur and Oscar Peterson Hall among others.
Engagements for the 2026-2027 season include Heerrufer (Lohengrin), Schaunard (la Bohème), Marullo (Rigoletto), Kapitän (Anything Goes), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Sonora (la fanciulla del West), Richter (Das Wunder der Heliane), as well as in a renewed collaboration with composer Gordon Kampe in the world premiere of Ruhrepos at the Aalto Musiktheater.
Roles for the 2025-2026 season include, Dr. Pangloss/Martin (Candide), Amfortas (Parsifal cover), Kuno (Der Freischütz), Marullo (Rigoletto).
Some of the over sixty-five roles performed include Klingsor (Parsifal), Wolfram and Reinmar von Zweter (Tannhäuser), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Orsini (Rienzi), Heerrufer (Lohengrin), Melot and Steuermann (Tristan und Isolde), Wassermann (Vodník) and Hunter (Rusalka), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Don Giovanni and Masetto (Don Giovanni), Papageno and Sprecher (die Zauberflöte), Owen (Owen Wingrave), Pangloss and Martin (Candide), Dillon (The Listeners), Doolittle (My Fair Lady), Kuno (Der Freischütz), Zweiter Handwerksbursch (Wozzeck), Il Sagrestano (Tosca), William Longspee (Geisterritter), Micha (Die verkaufte Braut), Frank (Die Fledermaus), Fra Melitone (La forza del destino), Pistola (Falstaff), Oberthal (Le Prophete), Feri Bacsi (die Csárdásfürstin), four villains and Spalanzani, (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Fiorello (Barbiere di Siviglia), Zar/Inquisitor (Candide), Schwarzer Minister (Le Grand Macabre), Orest and Pfleger (Elektra), Erster Nazarener and Zweiter Soldat (Salome), Morbio (die schweigsame Frau).
World premiere performances took place in works such as Dogville (Gordon Kampe), Andreas Weent (Peter-Jan Wagemans), Martin Streda (Andrew Svoboda) and In Widening Circles (Imant Raminsh).
Recent concert engagements include the Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven), Petite Messe Solennelle (Rossini), Requiem (Fauré), the St. John- and St. Matthew Passion as well as the Mass in B minor (J. S. Bach), Et in Terra Pax (Frank Martin) and Arvo Pärts Passio, in addition to song recitals.
Karel Martin Ludvik has sung under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, Ascher Fisch, Constantinos Carydis, Andrea Sanguineti, Tomáš Netopil, Friedrich Haider, Stefan Klingele, Karen Kamsensek, Giacomo Sagripanti, Dima Slobodeniouk, Michael Schønwandt, Ed Spanjaard, Francesco Angelico, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jan Wllem de Vriend, Iwan Edwards, Richard Egarr, Hartmut Haenchen, Alexis Hauser, among others.
Collaborations with stage directors include: Tatjana Gürbaca, Vincent Boussard, Frank Hilbrich, Roland Schwab, Matthias Davids, Guy Joosten, Mariame Clément, Lotte De Beer, Floris Visser, Phillip Harnoncourt, Sue Lawless, Robert Carsen, among others.
Karel Martin Ludvik studied at McGill University in his native Montréal, the Hochschule für Musik Augsburg, as well as the Dutch National Opera Academy, and was a member of the Netherlands Opera Studio and the Académie du festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
A member of the ensemble at the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen since 2016, he has developed a vast repertoire encompassing over sixty-five roles and is and a regular guest at opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe and North America.
International guest engagements have taken place at the Bavarian State Opera Munich, Semperoper Dresden, Oper Leipzig, Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Oper Köln, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Dutch National Opera Amsterdam, Theater Dortmund, Hannover State Opera, Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, Theater Basel, Tyrolean State Opera Innsbruck, Hessen State Opera Wiesbaden, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Oldenburg State Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Merkin Hall New York, Rotterdam Opera Festival, Mozart Festival Augsburg among others.
Concert appearances include Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Essen, Mosel Musikfestival, De Doelen Rotterdam, Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Musikforum Ruhr Bochum, Circulo de Bellas Artes Madrid, Palau Moja Barcelona, Harpa Reykjavik as well as Montreal’s Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur and Oscar Peterson Hall among others.
Engagements for the 2026-2027 season include Heerrufer (Lohengrin), Schaunard (la Bohème), Marullo (Rigoletto), Kapitän (Anything Goes), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Sonora (la fanciulla del West), Richter (Das Wunder der Heliane), as well as in a renewed collaboration with composer Gordon Kampe in the world premiere of Ruhrepos at the Aalto Musiktheater.
Roles for the 2025-2026 season include, Dr. Pangloss/Martin (Candide), Amfortas (Parsifal cover), Kuno (Der Freischütz), Marullo (Rigoletto).
Some of the over sixty-five roles performed include Klingsor (Parsifal), Wolfram and Reinmar von Zweter (Tannhäuser), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Orsini (Rienzi), Heerrufer (Lohengrin), Melot and Steuermann (Tristan und Isolde), Wassermann (Vodník) and Hunter (Rusalka), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Don Giovanni and Masetto (Don Giovanni), Papageno and Sprecher (die Zauberflöte), Owen (Owen Wingrave), Pangloss and Martin (Candide), Dillon (The Listeners), Doolittle (My Fair Lady), Kuno (Der Freischütz), Zweiter Handwerksbursch (Wozzeck), Il Sagrestano (Tosca), William Longspee (Geisterritter), Micha (Die verkaufte Braut), Frank (Die Fledermaus), Fra Melitone (La forza del destino), Pistola (Falstaff), Oberthal (Le Prophete), Feri Bacsi (die Csárdásfürstin), four villains and Spalanzani, (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Fiorello (Barbiere di Siviglia), Zar/Inquisitor (Candide), Schwarzer Minister (Le Grand Macabre), Orest and Pfleger (Elektra), Erster Nazarener and Zweiter Soldat (Salome), Morbio (die schweigsame Frau).
World premiere performances took place in works such as Dogville (Gordon Kampe), Andreas Weent (Peter-Jan Wagemans), Martin Streda (Andrew Svoboda) and In Widening Circles (Imant Raminsh).
Recent concert engagements include the Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven), Petite Messe Solennelle (Rossini), Requiem (Fauré), the St. John- and St. Matthew Passion as well as the Mass in B minor (J. S. Bach), Et in Terra Pax (Frank Martin) and Arvo Pärts Passio, in addition to song recitals.
Karel Martin Ludvik has sung under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, Ascher Fisch, Constantinos Carydis, Andrea Sanguineti, Tomáš Netopil, Friedrich Haider, Stefan Klingele, Karen Kamsensek, Giacomo Sagripanti, Dima Slobodeniouk, Michael Schønwandt, Ed Spanjaard, Francesco Angelico, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jan Wllem de Vriend, Iwan Edwards, Richard Egarr, Hartmut Haenchen, Alexis Hauser, among others.
Collaborations with stage directors include: Tatjana Gürbaca, Vincent Boussard, Frank Hilbrich, Roland Schwab, Matthias Davids, Guy Joosten, Mariame Clément, Lotte De Beer, Floris Visser, Phillip Harnoncourt, Sue Lawless, Robert Carsen, among others.
Karel Martin Ludvik studied at McGill University in his native Montréal, the Hochschule für Musik Augsburg, as well as the Dutch National Opera Academy, and was a member of the Netherlands Opera Studio and the Académie du festival d’Aix-en-Provence.