Eric Owens, bass-baritone

Has performed with: New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony

Premiere performances: Grendel in Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel with LA Opera and at the Lincoln Center Festival; General Leslie Groves in John Adams’ Doctor Atomic with San Francisco Opera; Storyteller in John Adams’ The Flowering Tree at Peter Sellars’ New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna (recorded on Telarc)

Opera roles include: Doctor Atomic and Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera; Lodovico in Otello at San Francisco Opera; Oroveso in Norma at Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Ramfis in Aida at Houston Grand Opera; Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Ferrando in Il Trovatore and Colline in La Bohème at Los Angeles Opera; the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte at Paris Opera (Bastille); the King of Scotland in Ariodante and Seneca in L’Incoronazione di Poppea at English National Opera; Collatinus in Rape of Lucretia at Glimmerglass Opera

Raves: “consistently charismatic, theatrically and vocally” –New York Magazine; “absolutely remarkable” –The Philadelphia Inquirer; “His hefty, tonally focused, richly colored voice cut through the tumult of Goldenthal’s schore, and his vital, naturalistic acting gave heart to a high-tech spectacle.” –Alex Ross, The New Yorker

Awards: First prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, New York’s Opera Index Career Grant Auditions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition; a 2003 Marian Anderson Award; a 1999 ARIA award.