Thomas Quasthoff

Thomas Quasthoff, German opera singer

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Born: November 9, 1959
Age in 2026: 67
Zodiac sign: Scorpio
Birth year: 1959

About Thomas Quasthoff

Thomas Quasthoff is a German bass-baritone. Quasthoff has a range of musical interest from Bach cantatas, to lieder, and solo jazz improvisations. Born with severe birth defects caused by thalidomide, Quasthoff is 1.34 m, and has phocomelia. Quasthoff's music career was launched in 1988 when he won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, earning praise from the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. In addition to recordings of classical repertoire, he released his first jazz album for DG in 2007, The Jazz Album: Watch What Happens, with Till Brönner, Alan Broadbent, Peter Erskine, Dieter Ilg, and Chuck Loeb. He won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance in 2000, for his recording with Anne Sofie von Otter of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, along with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Thomas Quasthoff timeline

1988Quasthoff's music career was launched in 1988 when he won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, earning praise from the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
2000He won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance in 2000, for his recording with Anne Sofie von Otter of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, along with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado.
2007In addition to recordings of classical repertoire, he released his first jazz album for DG in 2007, The Jazz Album: Watch What Happens, with Till Brönner, Alan Broadbent, Peter Erskine, Dieter Ilg, and Chuck Loeb.

The world when Thomas Quasthoff was born

Thomas Quasthoff was born in 1959. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1959

#1 song"Mack the Knife" – Bobby Darin
Top movieBen-Hur
Top TV showGunsmoke
Best-selling bookGoldfinger – Ian Fleming

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentIngemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson for heavyweight title
Top headlineAlaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th US states
Technology milestoneMicrochip (integrated circuit) invented
Defining fadBarbie dolls
Notable inventionBarbie doll
World population2.98 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
Sports championLos Angeles Dodgers (World Series)
Also wonBoston Celtics (NBA)
U.S. population177.1M

1959 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Thomas Quasthoff's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1959	2026
Gas	$0.31	$3.45/gal
Average home	$12,400	$435,000
Average income	$7,000	$67,500
Minimum wage	$1.00	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.69	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.04	$0.73
Population	177.1M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.