Thomas Quasthoff
Born: 9th November 1959, Hildesheim, Germany
Nationality: German
Thomas Quasthoff was born Germany in 1959 and applied to study music at the Hanover conservatory but was refused a place owing to his physical inability to play the piano: due to his mother’s exposure to thalidomide, he was born with phocomelia and is only 1.34 metres tall. Before his singing career took off, Quasthoff studied law and worked in radio and voice-over; in 1988 he won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, and by the mid-90s he was in high demand for concert performances of repertoire from Bach to Penderecki.