Born in Halle an der Saale, the tenor began his musical career as a trumpeter and was initially first trumpet with the Berliner Symphoniker. In 2006 he shifted his musical focus to singing. From 2008 to 2010 he was a member of the International Opera Studio of Zurich Opera House, to which he subsequently belonged as a member of the ensemble. Here he performed, amongst others, Arbace (»Idomeneo«), Dancing Master (»Ariadne auf Naxos«), Valzacchi (»Der Rosenkavalier«), Ivan (»The Nose«), Pedrillo (»Die Entführung aus dem Serail«), Der Schäbige (»Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk«), David (»Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg«) and Pirzel (»Die Soldaten«). Guest performances have taken him to Opéra national de Paris (Brighella in »Ariadne auf Naxos, Pedrillo and Monostatos in »Die Zauberflöte«), La Scala Milan (Andres in »Wozzeck«), Opéra national de Lyon (Pedrillo), Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Pedrillo, Dr Blind in »Die Fledermaus«), Berlin State Opera (First Jew in »Salome«), Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam (Valzacchi), Theater an der Wien (Erich in »Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald«, Flute in »A Midsummer Night’s Dream«) as well as Vlaamse Opera as Aegisthus (»Elektra«) and Albert Gregor (»Věc Makropulos«). At Glyndebourne Festival, he appeared as the Dancing Master (»Ariadne auf Naxos«), at the Stuttgart Music Festival he appeared in Ullmann’s »Der Kaiser von Atlantis« and at the Bregenzer Festspiele in Mieczysław Weinberg’s »Das Porträt«, as Erich in the world première of HK Gruber's »Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald« and in 2018 as Orsino (»Beatrix Cenci«). In 2012 he made his début as Scaramuccio (»Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Salzburg Festival, where he returned in 2013 as Cauchon in Braunfels’s »Jeanne d'Arc« and in 2018 as Josef K in Gottfried von Einem’s »Der Prozess«, for which he was enthusiastically praised by audiences and critics alike. In 2018 Michael Laurenz joined the ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper. Future engagements will take him to Hamburg State Opera, Deutsche Opera Berlin, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Theater Basel, Bregenzer Festspiele, and the Salzburg Festival. Upcoming role débuts include Matteo (»Arabella«), Baron Lummer (»Intermezzo«), Stewa (»Jenůfa«), Alfred (»Die Fledermaus«) and Narr (»Schatzgräber«).