The tenor Frank van Aken studied singing in Utrecht, at the Opera Studio of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and with James McCray. He was an ensemble member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and then of Oper Frankfurt, to which he is still a guest.

In the summer of 2007 he made a successful debut with Tannhäuser at the Bayreuther Festspiele, a role he also sang in Barcelona, at the Festspiele Baden-Baden and the Wiener Staatsoper. In 2012 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Siegmund in Die Walküre, this was followed by Tannhäuser in Santiago de Chile and Tristan at the Semperoper Dresden—together with his wife Eva-Maria Westbroek as Isolde. Recently he has sung Siegmund (Teatro Liceo Barcelona), Sergei (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in New York) and Parsifal (Oper Frankfurt). Other engagements include the title role in Otello (Deutsches Nationaltheater, Staatskapelle Weimar). At Dutch National Opera, he sang Life with an Idiot, Salome and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.