Rainer Trost was born in Stuttgart and studied voice in Munich with Adalbert Kraus. At the age of 26 he made his first international breakthrough, courtesy of John Eliot Gardiner, singing Ferrando in “Cosi fan tutte” in Paris and on tour with the maestro and subsequently recording the role with him, for Polydor. This launched him as an internationally sought after Mozart tenor, singing in all important opera houses (Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera Bastille, Palais Garnier and Metropolitan Opera New York, as well as Maggio Musicale Firence and the Salzburg Festival).

Among his most important past engagements are Alfonso (in Schubert’s „Alfonso und Estrella“) in Cagliari, Fenton in Munich and the Vienna State Opera, Flamand („Capriccio“) in Paris, Tamino in Tokyo, Athens, San Diego and Dresden, David („Meistersinger“) in Toulouse, Dionysos („Die Bassariden“) at the Chatelet in Paris; Jaquino with Zubin Mehta at the opening of the Palau de las Artes Rein Sofia in Valencia in October 2006, Leukippos („Daphne“) in Amsterdam and „Clemenza di Tito“ in Leipzig. In his service to contemporary opera, he created the role of Calogero in the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s „La Grande Magia“ in Dresden and, likewise, created the role of Orsino in the same composer's "Was Ihr wollt" in Munich.

Highlights of his activity as a concert singer were appearances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, at the Musikhalle Hamburg, Tonhalle Zurich, Tonhalle Dusseldorf, Musikverein in Vienna, Munich Gasteig, Prinzregententheater Munich and Gulbenkian Lisbon.
He worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Carlo Maria Giulini, Frans Bruggen, Ton Koopman, Helmut Rilling, Seiji Osawa and Trevor Pinnock.