Artist Roster

Biography

Baritone Jesse Blumberg is an artist equally at home on opera, concert, and recital stages.  Most recently he debuted at Boston Lyric Opera as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos. Upcoming engagements include a busy season of recitals in addition to a return to Minnesota Opera as Mr. Lockwood in Wuthering Heights, Poliferno in Niobe, Queen of Thebes with the Boston Early Music Festival and a concert appearance with the New York Festival of Song.  Jesse created the role of Connie Rivers in Ricky Ian Gordon’s world premiere opera The Grapes of Wrath at The Minnesota Opera, and later made his Utah and Pittsburgh Opera debuts in the same production.  In June of 2009, he made his Boston Early Music Festival debut, performing Adonis in Venus and Adonis and Mercurio in L’incoronazione di Poppea.  Other recent engagements include his debut with Opera Delaware as John Brooke in Little Women and Silvio in Annapolis Opera’s production of Pagliacci.  For his performance in the title role of Monteverdi’s Return of Ulysses with Opera Vivente, the Baltimore Sun raved, “Jesse Blumberg commanded the stage, physically and vocally…lighting up the hall with his every appearance.”  His other operatic roles performed include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, Paquillo in La Perichole, and Pish-Tush in The Mikado.

On the concert stage, Mr. Blumberg was recently seen with the American Bach Soloists for Handel’s Messiah and at the University of California, Davis singing the Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem.  He has been a featured soloist with American Bach Soloists in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and at the Berkshire Choral Festival.  He has given the world premieres of two important chamber works, Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakers and Lisa Bielawa’s The Lay of the Love and Death, the former at the Vail Valley Music Festival and the latter at Alice Tully Hall.  He has also toured with the Waverly Consort and the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has been a guest artist with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.  As a member of the roster of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, Mr. Blumberg performed an On Wings of Song recital with pianist Martin Katz, which has since been heard around the nation on various radio broadcasts.  He performed Die schöne Müllerin at the Austrian Embassy, as well as a recital of songs by Hugo Wolf, described by the Washington Post as “no less than revelatory.” Additionally, as a new member of the Mirror Visions Ensemble, he collaborates with many prominent song composers and performs annually in New York City and Paris.

Mr. Blumberg has participated in young artist programs at The Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, the Ravinia Festival, and Chicago Opera Theater.  He has been recognized in several competitions, and most recently was awarded Third Prize at the 2008 International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, becoming its first American prizewinner in over thirty years.  In 2007 he took first prizes in the International Hilde Zadek Singing Competition in Vienna and the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Competition.

Mr. Blumberg received a Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and received undergraduate degrees in History and Music from the University of Michigan.  He is also the founder and artistic director of the Five Boroughs Music Festival, a new concert series in New York City.