The Austrian bass-baritone Josef Wagner studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

 Since his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2006 in Mozart's La Finta Semplice he has worked as a freelance singer. He regularly gives guest performances at important opera houses such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Finnish National Opera, Toronto, Opéra de Nice, Antwerp, Marseille, Dijon, Israeli Opera Tel Aviv, Opera Ireland and the Volksoper Wien.

 Josef Wagner is also a sought-after concert singer whose repertoire ranges from Passion settings of the Baroque to the classical and romantic oratorios of Haydn and Mendelssohn and to contemporary works.

 Josef Wagner has continuously developed into the dramatic baritone repertoire and sang his first Jochanaan in 2013 alongside Nina Stemme in Stockholm with great success. It was followed by his acclaimed debuts as Eugene Onegin in Helsinki and as Flying Dutchman at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Most recently he celebrated successes as the ruler (Wunder der Heliane) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as Dutchman in Vienna and Hyogo, as Count (Capriccio) at the Teatro Real Madrid, as Jochanaan in Stuttgart and Mandryka (Arabella) at Opernhaus Zürich and Madrid.
After Athanael (Thais) at Theater an der Wien, he debuted his first Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) at the prestigious Aix-en-Provence festival in summer 2021 and his first Wotan (Rheingold) in Bern with great success.

 Projects in the current season include his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper München as Don Pizarro (Fidelio) and Klingsor (Parsifal) as well as Der Herrscher (Das Wunder der Heliane) in Strasbourg.