The Norwegian baritone Tom Erik Lie was born in Oslo and studied classical singing at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Norwegian Opera Academy in Oslo 1986-1991. In 1991 his first engagement led him to Düsseldorf. From 1993 to 1998 Tom Erik Lie was engaged in Gelsenkirchen. He was nominated in 1996 by the magazine “Opernwelt” for the part as “Wolfram” in “Tannhäuser” as ”promising artist of the year “. In 1995 he received the ” Ingrid Bjoner’s Scholarship for young singers.
Guest engagements followed in Hannover, Essen, Nurnberg, Bonn, Leipzig, Dresden, Copenhagen and Oslo.
From 1998 to 2001 Tom Erik Lie was a member of the ensemble at the opera in Leipzig. Here he sang Frère Léon in the German première of Messiaens’ “ Saint François d’Assise “; Guglielmo, Papageno, Siegfried in Schumann´s ”Genoveva” and Wolfram in ”Tannhäuser”, a part which he also sang at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen. As Don Giovanni and Robert Storch in “Intermezzo” by Richard Strauss, he celebrated great successes in Garsington Opera Festival in England.
An engagement followed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin 2001-2004, where he sang Papageno, Wolfram, Sharpless, Albert in ”Werther”, Schaunard and Frère Léon.
Tom Erik made his debute at Komische Oper Berlin in 2003 as Edwin in ”Die Csárdásfürstin”. Since 2004 he is a member of the ensemble there and have so far performed as varied roles as Marcel in ”La Bohème”, Count Almaviva in “The marriage of Figaro”, the title parts in ”Eugen Onegin” and “Don Giovanni”, Sharpless in “Madama Butterfly”, Papageno in “The Magic Flute”, Gabriel von Eisenstein in “Die Fledermaus”, Prince Jeletzky in “Pique dame” and Horatio at the world premiere of Christian Jost’s “Hamlet”. He recently received great reclaim for the roles of Germont in “La Traviata” and Beckmesser in ”Meistersinger von Nürnberg”.
In 2010 Tom Erik Lie sang the part of Phileas Fogg at The Norwegian National Opera, in the world premiere of “In 80 days around the world” by Norwegian composer Gisle Kverndokk.
Tom Erik Lie has sung numerous concerts in Europe, Asia and the USA, and worked with conductors like Kirill Petrenko, Christian Thieleman, Sir André Previn, Michael Jurowsky, Vladimir Jurowsky, Marcello Viotti, Paolo Carignani and Friedeman Layer, and worked with directors like Peter Konwitschny, Hans Neuenfels, Calisto Bieto, Christof Loy, Kasper Holten, Andreas Homoki and Barrie Kosky.
Tom Erik was supposed to sing Beckmesser in The Norwegian Opera’s cancelled production of Wagner’s “Die Mestersinger von Nürnberg”, spring 2020.
The season 20/21 Tom Erik is singing the title role in Offenbach’s “Die Großherzogin von Gerolstein” and Papageno in the world known production of “Die Zauberflöte” at Komische Oper Berlin.