He studied song and oratorio with Charles Spencer and Robert Holl at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and attended master classes with Kurt Equiluz and Walter Berry.
As a concert singer Ernst performed in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands in the Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) and in Utrecht.
[1] His first engagement took Ernst to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf in 2002 as a member of the ensemble, where he made his debut as David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Guest appearances have taken the tenor to the Volksoper Wien, the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin and as Telemaco in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria to the opera festival in Montreux.
[4] The highlight of his career so far, however, was his debut at the Vienna State Opera in January 2008, where he stepped in at short notice as David in the revival of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under the direction of Christian Thielemann and received much applause from audience and press.