Jochen Kupfer is one of Germany’s most sought-after singers of the younger generation. His guest appearances in the world’s opera houses and concert halls have been internationally celebrated.
Highly acclaimed role debuts in 2012/13 included Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) and Spirit Messenger (Die Frau ohne Schatten) as well as in preceding seasons Orest (Elektra), the title role in Rossini's Guillaume Tell and Giorgio Germont (La Traviata). His debut as Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von  Nürnberg (Staatstheater Nürnberg) in 2011 was described as „just brilliant“ (Opernwelt) in the press.
During the last season guest appearances have, for the first time, taken Jochen Kupfer for the first time to the opera houses in Tokyo and Strasbourg  (Wolfram von Eschenbach) and to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (Spirit Messenger in Frau ohne Schatten).
Other notable guest engagements included Komische Oper Berlin (title role in Don Giovanni, 2011) and Semperoper Dresden (2010), Opernhaus Zürich (debut 2012, title role in Guillaume Tell), Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (Capriccio) and Bayerische Staatsoper München (Così fan tutte). At the
Bremen Theatre he has made his successful debut as Jochanaan (Salome, 2008).
In 2005 he began a major association with the Staatstheater Nürnberg. In the preceding years, he had been a long time member of the Semperoper Dresden where he sang important roles of the lyrical baritone repertoire such as Conte Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Papageno (Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and Olivier in Capriccio by Richard Strauss.
Jochen Kupfer has appeared with famous conductors including Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Chailly, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, René Jacobs, Philippe Herreweghe, Jeffrey Tate, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Christoph Prick, Kent Nagano, Fabio Luisi, Yuri Temirkanov, Paavo Järvi and Herbert
Blomstedt.
He has given recitals and concert performances throughout Europe, in Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Hong Kong, Israel and the United States (San Francisco, Carnegie Hall in New York) and at international Festivals as well (Salzburger Festspiele, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Rheingau Musik Festival, Festival of Early Music in Boston, Lincoln Center Festival New York, Menuhin Festival Gstaad).
The first-rate releases of Schubert’s Winterreise (CD, MeisterKlang) and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on DVD in 2012 have added to his numerous other recordings in the recital and concert repertoire.
Jochen Kupfer is the winner of numerous renowned singing competitions. When he was still a student, he was engaged by the Südthüringisches Staatstheater Meiningen, where he made his first successful appearances on the opera stage, including the roles of Wolfram and Graf von Gleichen  (Schubert, Der Graf von Gleichen).
When he was only nine years old, he got his first singing lessons at the music school of his native town of Grimma. He studied with Helga Forner  (Musikhochschule Leipzig) and attended Master Classes with Theo Adam and Elio Battaglia, completing his studies with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Harald Stamm and Dale Fundling.