John Matthew Myers
A tenor, John Matthew Myers, was declared an “artist to watch” by Opera News, and has rapidly established himself among the ranks of today's exceptional young voices. He has collaborated with companies such as the Verbier Festival, Santa Fe Opera and LA Opera, and made his surprise Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in 2017 as Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China conducted by the composer. His breakout performance was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “brightly lighted to match his declaiming voice.” The winner of Vocal Arts DC’s 2017 Art Song Discovery Competition, he gives recitals this season at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Phillips Collection. Currently a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, he has garnered acclaim for his “lovely, warm tenor of considerable promise” (Opera News) and “insightful and beautifully nuanced performances” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram). He was a Gerdine Young Artist with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, a 2016 District Winner and Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a 3rd Place winner in the 2017 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition.
Further activities in 2017-2018 include a performance with the Cathedral Choral Society in Washington DC under the baton of Kent Tritle in Mozart’s Requiem and Doctor Marianus in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium Perelman Stage with the Canterbury Choral Society. Elsewhere in the U.S. he performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Marcelo Lehninger and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with Nir Kabaretti and Southwest Florida Symphony, and Allentown Symphony Orchestra alongside Angela Meade for an evening of opera arias. He continues his collaboration with the Academy of Vocal Arts as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos in March 2018.
In 2016-17, his performances included the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Prince Sinodal in Rubinstein’s The Demon with the Academy of Vocal Arts, Britten’s War Requiem with Great Music in a Great Space in The Cathedral Church of Saint John The Divine, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Berkshire Choral International under the baton of Kent Tritle.
Recent operatic roles in his repertoire included Pollione in Norma, Don Jose in Carmen, Cassio in Otello, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Trin in La Fanciulla del West, Valerio in Mercadante's Virginia, Ophide in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon, 6th Diener in Capriccio, 3rd Jew in Salome, Steve Wozniak in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, and Junior/Charlie in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain. He has collaborated with Long Beach Opera in Michael Gordon’s Van Gogh, Gabriela Ortiz’s Camelia la Tejana: Unicamente La Verdad, Stewart Copeland’s Tell Tale Heart, and as Monsieur Grivet in Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin, the latter of which he performed in his debut at Chicago Opera Theater. Additional credits include Rodolfo in La Boheme, the title role in Bernstein’s Candide, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Agenore in Mozart’s Il Re Pastore, Antinoüs in Faure’s Pénélope, Fenton in Falstaff, and the Jazz Trio Tenor in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti.
A frequent concert artist, John has performed Britten’s War Requiem at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, Jocelyn Hagen’s Amass at Alice Tully Hall with Kent Tritle for his Lincoln Center debut with Musica Sacra, Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music with the Wexford Festival Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Fairfield Chorale, and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes and other quartets with Performance Santa Fe. John has had the pleasure of performing in concert with composers Ricky Ian Gordon and Ben Moore at the Chautauqua Institute Music Festival, Opera America's Salon Series: Exploring American Voices and the Van Cliburn Foundation's Modern at the Modern Concert Series in Fort Worth, TX. He was a soloist with the Mark Morris Dance Group in their performances of The Muir as well as soloist in September Songs: The Legacy of Kurt Weill with the American Musical Theatre Ensemble.
John received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music with additional studies at the Verbier Festival Academy, Chautauqua Institute, and Music Academy of the West.
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