Baritone Alexander York, from Wisconsin, will be joining the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris for the 2018-19 season. After two years living in Munich and performing around the German speaking world, he will make his first foray into France.
York recently made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut in Viktor Ullmann's Der zerbrochene Krug in the role of the Bedienter. Last summer, he sang the role of James Ramsey in the world premiere of Zesses Seglias' To the Lighthouse at the Bregenz Festival.
Over the past three years, York has been a fixture of the opera stage at Theater Augsburg -- firstly, making his European debut as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore in 2016; secondly, as a scholarship-holding member of the 2016-17 soloist ensemble, playing Angelotti and Sciarrone in Tosca, the Captain in Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Simplicius Simplicissimus, Weickmann/Fuhrmann in Hans Thomalla's Kaspar Hauser, and as the Herald in Verdi's Otello; and most recently, singing the German premiere of Kelvin (Off stage) in Dai Fujikura’s Solaris.
In addition to his opera pursuits, York has been a student of the German, French, and Slavic Lied repertoire at the Munich University of Music and Theater Arts under the tutelage of Lars Woldt, Rudi Spring, Donald Sulzen, and Andreas Schmidt. His study culminates this July in a final comprehensive recital and presentation. He was a 2016 winner of the prestigious Fulbright Research Grant, a 2017 winner of the Hanns-Seidel Foreign Student Grant, and is continually supported by the arte-Musica foundation.
As a concert artist in Europe, York has sung a solo recital at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, performed with the Munich Radio Orchestra, and joined the Heidelberg Philharmonic to sing the bass solos in Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium. Equally at home in the new music scene, York recently gave the world premiere of Rudi Spring's Augenblicke des Abschieds, a song cycle for baritone and hammered dulcimer.
Last summer, he took part in the Excellence in Voice/Opera masterclass led by Hedwig Fassbender in Weikersheim, Germany and the IMAS masterclass with Lars Woldt in Bückeburg, Germany.
Before making his way to Europe, York made the rounds in the American summer festival scene. As a Fellowship recipient at the Aspen Opera Center in 2016, he performed as Snooks in William Bolcom’s A Wedding and was seen in masterclass with Renée Fleming. As an Apprentice Artist with Central City Opera in 2015, York jumped in on one day’s notice to sing Cervantes/Don Quixote in Mitch Leigh’s Man of La Mancha, earning a glowing review, performed Baron Duphol in La Traviata, and received the prestigious John Moriarty Award for collegiality and service to the company.
During his graduate studies at Northwestern University, York performed the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, Joseph DeRocher in the Chicago-area premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Sam in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, and Overtop in Michael Ehrmann's modern adaptation of Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor. He was awarded a Luminarts Fellowship, a Bel Canto award from the Bel Canto Society of Chicago, and was the runner up in the Art Song/Oratorio division of the American Prize. York is a 2014 graduate of Lawrence University in Wisconsin, where he was seen as Sid in Albert Herring, Harry Easter in Street Scene, and Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods.