Benjamin Bruns began his career as an alto soloist in the boys' choir of his home town of Hanover. After four years of private singing lessons with Prof. Peter Sefcik, he studied at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre with Kammersängerin Renate Behle. While still a student, he was offered his first permanent engagement by the Bremen Theatre, which enabled him to build up a broad repertoire at an early stage and was soon followed by an ensemble contract at the Cologne Opera. Via the Saxon State Opera Dresden, his path led him directly to the Vienna State Opera, where he was a member of the ensemble from June 2010 to June 2020.
Oratorio and song recitals are an important counterpoint to the stage work of the much sought-after tenor. The focus of his extensive concert repertoire is on the great sacred works of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn. He has performed with all the major German orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Berlin Academy of Ancient Music, as well as with renowned international ensembles such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Collegium Japan, the Czech Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the choir and orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Benjamin Bruns is a prizewinner of the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin, the Hamburg Mozart Competition and the International Singing Competition of the Schloss Rheinsberg Chamber Opera. He has received the Kurt-Hübner Prize of the Bremen Theatre and the Young Talent Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival as special awards.
His CD of lieder, featuring Schumann's "Dichterliebe" and "Der arme Peter", Beethoven's "An die ferne Geliebte" and Hugo Wolf's "Liederstrauß" (piano: Karola Theill), was highly praised by the press and nominated for both the International Classical Music Awards and the German Record Prize in the "Vocal Recital" category. His most recent CD is a recording of Schubert's "Winterreise", accompanied by Karola Theill.