Winner, Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions
Praised for his “robust, handsome voice” (The Washington Post), baritone Jonathan Beyer was a National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The recipient of numerous other awards, he was recently named a First Prize winner of the George London Foundation Awards and the recipient of the 2011 Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia Career Advancement Award. He has also captured the top prize from the San Antonio Opera Competition, the XIV Biennial Marguerite McCammon Competition, the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists, and the Irma M. Cooper, Violetta DuPont, New Jersey Verismo, SAI, American Opera Society, Union League Civic and Arts Foundation, and The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Albert M. Greenfield competitions, as well as from the Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions, Rochester’s Classical Idol, and the Bel Canto Foundation. He has also received awards from the Sullivan, Gerda Lissner, Jensen, Solti, Licia Albanese Puccini, Anna Sosenko, Mario Lanza, Giulio Gari, and José Iturbi foundations, and the Loren L. Zachary, Dresden Opera, NATS, Palm Beach Opera, Irene Dalis, Liederkranz, Orpheus, Neue Stimmen, and Charles Lynam competitions, as well as from the National Opera Association and Shreveport Singer of the Year. He was also a winner of Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions.
Mr. Beyer premièred the role of Captain Gardiner in Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick at Dallas Opera, a role he reprises for San Diego Opera in 2012. He recently performed Ramiro in Ravel’s L’heure espganole for Oper Frankfurt, Schaunard in La bohème for both Hong Kong Opera and Austin Lyric Opera, Lescaut in Manon for Knoxville Opera, and Silvio in I Pagliacci for Opera Grand Rapids. He has appeared with Pittsburgh Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, the Chautauqua Institution, the Tanglewood Music Center, Accademia Verdiana, and Teatro di Verdi. His wide-ranging operatic roles also include Marcello in La bohème, Germont in La traviata, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, and Richard Nixon in John Adams’ Nixon in China.
Critically hailed for his performances of Carmina Burana, he has been featured as soloist in Carmina with both the Vermont Symphony and the Erie Philharmonic, and performs it at Lincoln Center with the National Chorale in 2011. He has also appeared as soloist with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Southwest Michigan Symphony, Lorin Maazel’s Châteauville Foundation, Chatam Baroque, Baton Rouge Symphony, and the Festival at Aix-en-Provence. Also an avid recitalist, Mr. Beyer has collaborated with Mikael Eliasen, Martin Katz, Kristin Okerlund, Craig Rutenberg, and Brian Zeger, and participated in the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute. He has appeared on Lyric Fest’s song series in Philadelphia, and has given recitals through the Vocal Arts Society, Marilyn Horne Foundation, Chicago Cultural Center, Judith Raskin Foundation, Bertlesmann Foundation, Huntsville Chamber Music Guild, Pittsburgh Concert Society, Astral Artists, Marian Anderson Foundation, and the Over the Rainbow Foundation, a recital that also featured Nancy Gustafson, Sylvia McNair, Denyce Graves, Sam Ramey, and Richard Leech. In the 2010-2011 season, he gives a recital in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall through the Carnegie Hall Foundation, performs songs from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Symphony in C, and sings Vier Ernste Gesänge at the Philadelphia Brahms Festival.
Other upcoming engagements include Escamillo in Carmen for the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Fort Worth Opera, Figaro in Il bariere di Siviglia with Boston Lyric Opera, Wagner in Faust at the Metropolitan Opera, and Ping in Turandot for Dallas Opera. He also performs Vaughn Williams Five Tudor Portraits with the Rochester Oratorio Society, Copland’s American Songs with the Fort Worth Symphony, and Fauré’s Requiem with the Colorado Symphony.
Mr. Beyer holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.
Updated: MAY 2011
