Jan Kobow (born 1966) is a German classical tenor in concert, Lied and Baroque opera.
He was born and raised in Berlin. He was a singer and soloist of the Staats- und Domchor, Berlin with Christian Grube. He studied the organ at the Schola Cantorum in Paris and graduated in church music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover in 1994. He continued to study singing at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Sabine Kirchner, graduating in 1999.
In the field of historically informed performance he has worked with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and took part in the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir. In 2002 he recorded several cantatas for Pentecost of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, conducted by Ludger Rémy, with one voice per part, the four soloists forming the choir. In 2003 he recorded Bach cantatas with Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent, Johannette Zomer, Ingeborg Danz and Peter Kooy, including Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2, written for the second Sunday after Trinity of 1724. In 2007 he recorded more Bach cantatas with Herreweghe, Dorothee Mields, Matthew White and Peter Kooy. In 2007 he performed with Herreweghe the tenor arias of Bach's St John Passion in Alice Tully Hall. In 2008 he sang the part of the Evangelist in an arrangement of this passion by Robert Schumann. A review states: "Jan Kobow’s rendition of the evangelist’s role is brilliant—compellingly dramatic and wonderfully fluent, and the ease of his high range is remarkable."
He has performed Baroque opera, such as in 2004 the part of Telemaco in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in a production also shown at the Lincoln Center in New York, in Caen and in Luxembourg.