Biography
The musical talent of the lyric baritone, who was born in Lower Austria, was discovered rather early. At present he is primarily engaged in the genres opera, operetta and song, although he is fascinated by each and every kind of music and always open minded towards new ideas. In recent years he was seen on opera stage in several countries e.g. as Don Giovanni, Hamlet, Papageno, Conte Almaviva, Posa, Figaro, Danilo. When he was eight years old, he had his first singing lessons with the Wiener Sängerknaben (Vienna Boys' Choir) and went on tour as their alto soloist in the USA, South America, Canada, Germany, England and Sweden. Weinhappel attended the private university of music and performing arts in Vienna (MUK) as well as the university of music and performing arts Vienna (MDW). In 2007 he graduated with honors and obtained the degree Master of Arts. Among his master's classes professors and singing lessons instructors were personalities such as Eva Blahova, Barbara Bonney, Walter Berry or Gundula Janowitz. Thomas Weinhappel gained the Yehudi Menuhin music scholarship and won several international singing contests. Weinhappel sang songs from Schubert's «Winter Journey» in Michael Haneke's film «The Piano Teacher», which was awarded with three Golden Palms at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001. He held concerts in the Vienna concert hall (Wiener Konzerthaus), at the Carinthian Summer music festival in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Japan, Australia, Venezuela, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Turkey and in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Chicago Symphony Orchestra (USA) an in Ottawa National Art Centre (CAN).
