Born in Železniki, Slovenia, Janez Lotrič studied with Ksenja Vidall-Zebre, at the Ljubljana Music Academy with Otta Ondina-Klasinc, and with Hilde Zadek in Vienna. He also gained further important influence during a "Corso di perfezionamento e interpretazione" with Mario del Monaco. During his studies, Janez Lotrič made his debut as Nemorino in "L'Elisir d'Amore" at Maribor opera house, Lotrič's international career started in 1995 in the role of Don José in Salzburg. In 1996 he already made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in the role of Canio in "I Pagliacci" and as Kalaf in "Turandot", as well as at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Manrico in "Il Trovatore".

Since then, Janez Lotrič has been a regular guest with main roles at all big Opera Houses and Festivals in the world, such as Vienna State Opera, Opéra National de Paris-Bastille, Scala di Milano, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Munich State Opera, Dresden Semperoper, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Zurich Opera, New National Opera Tokyo and the Salzburg Festival.

His large repertoire includes among other roles Canio ("I Pagliacci"), Turridu ("Cavalleria Rusticana"), Manrico ("Il Trovatore"), Radames ("Aida"), Arrigo ("Vespri Siciliani"), Ernani ("Ernani"), Don Alvaro ("La Forza del Destino"), Kalaf ("Turandot"), Cavaradossi ("Tosca"), Arnolde ("Guillaume Tell"), Tonio ("La Fille du Régiment"), Alfred ("The Bat"), Bacchus ("Ariadne auf Naxos"), Apollo (R. Strauss: "Daphne"), Florestan ("Fidelio"), Don José ("Carmen"), Hoffmann ("Les Contes d'Hoffmann"), Paul (Korngold: "Die Tote Stadt) or Verdi's "Otello" as well as rare works, such as the title role of the popular Croatian "Opera Comique" "Ero, the picaro".

A CD with "Operatic Duets for Tenor and Baritone", sung by Janez Lotrič together with Igor Morozow was released with the Naxos label. After his successful CD with big tenor arias released in December 1999, another CD with arias by Verdi, Rossini, Puccini und Glinka was published by Naxos in Spring 2003.

Janez Lotrič also has become a highly demanded concert singer, whose repertoire reaches from Beethoven's "Symphony no. 9", "Missa Solemnis" or "Christus auf dem Ölberg", the Requiems by Berlioz, Dvorak or Verdi, the "Glagolitic Mass" by Janacek, Puccini's "Messa di Gloria", Rossini's "Stabat mater" to Mahler's "8th Symphony" and "Lied von der Erde".