Vinke was born in 1967 in Georgsmarienhütte.
Originally an organ player, he studied voice with Edda Moser
at the Cologne academy of music and was hired by the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe in 1993, as a comprimario.
He then moved to Krefeld-Mönchengladbach, performing Tony
(West Side Story), Beppe (Pagliacci), Erster Geharnischter (Zauberflöte), Hoffmann (Les contes d'Hoffmann) and
Erik (Fliegender Holländer).
In 1996, as he began specializing in heldentenor unfortunately roles, he
received a scholarship from Bayreuth.
From 1999, he sang with the Nationaltheater Mannheim for six seasons as first heroic tenor, making his US debut with the
opera company of Philadelphia as Bacchus.
He sang his first Tristan in Halle in 2004, and
his first Siegfried in Cologne, and in 2005/06, he was engaged by the Leipzig opera to sing the lead tenor roles
in all their Wagner productions.
He went on to sing young Siegfried in Leipzig, Venice, Lisbon, Cologne, Berlin, Salzburg, London, Seattle, Shanghai, ...
In summer 2008, he sang his first
Tannhäuser at the Eutin Festival, and in 2009 sang his first Siegfried in Götterdämmerung at La Fenice, then
in Lisbon.
The following year, after singing Tristan in Cologne and Lohengrin in both
Stuttgart and Leipzig, Vinke undertook Siegfried in the complete Ring cycles in Cologne and Berlin, and he
completed his Wagner repertoire with Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Leipzig.
His repertory included: Paul (Die tote Stadt), Tristan, Florestan, Parsifal, Lohengrin, Siegmund, Erik, Idomeneo,
José,, Hoffmann, Bacchus, Un emigrante (Intolleranza), Andrea Ché,nier, Jim Mahony, Max, both Siegfrieds,
Erik, Rienzi, Walther von Stolzing, Tannhäuser, Siegmund, Alviano (Die Gezeichneten), Erik,
Assad, ...
| Opernwelt: 'Best young singer of the year', 2000 |
