Johannes Kalpers had his early musical training as a chorister at Limburg Cathedral. From 1987 he studied music and singing at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule, where he graduated in 1994. He participated in master-classes with Nicolai Gedda, Hermann Prey, Ernst Haefliger, Werner Hollweg, Bernhard Adler and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and won success in various singing competitions, including the Richard Strauss Plakette, and the Franz Völker Prize, and was an award-winner of the Richard Wagner Foundation. After his first engagements at the Eisenach and Chemnitz opera houses, he spent two seasons with the Hanover Lower Saxony Staatsoper. From 2000 to 2002 he was a member of the Vienna Volksoper. Guest engagements have included appearances at the Salzburg Festival, the Mannheim National Theatre, the Wiesbaden State Theatre, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Erfurt Opera, Dresden State Operetta and the Kassel State Theatre. His oratorio performances and Lieder recitals have brought appearances at the Vienna Musikverein, Frankfurt Old Opera, the Berlin Philharmonic and Konzerthaus, the Munich Herkulessaal and Philharmonic, in Cologne and in Salzburg. He has participated in recordings, broadcasts and television productions. Since 2001 he has served as a senior lecturer in singing at the Frankfurt-am-Main Musikhochschule.

Discography