Baritone Jesse Blumberg is an artist equally at home on opera, concert, and recital stages. Highlights for the 2013-2014 season included a return to Minnesota Opera as Papageno in The Magic Flute, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Kentucky Opera, Messiah with Boston Baroque, and repeat appearances with American Bach Soloists and Boston Early Music Festival. The 2012-2013 season found Jesse’s New York City Opera debut in VOX 2012, Britten’s War Requiem with the Oratorio Society of New York, The Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise with pianist Martin Katz, and a return to American Bach Soloists for their annual Messiah. Engagements for recent seasons included a busy schedule of concerts and recitals in addition to his Anchorage Opera debut as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and the world premiere of Positions 1956 at Urban Arias. His other recent roles include The Celebrant in Bernstein’s Mass at London’s Royal Festival Hall under the baton of Marin Alsop, Poliferno in Niobe, Queen of Thebes with the Boston Early Music Festival, Mr. Lockwood in Wuthering Heights at Minnesota Opera, and Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos with Boston Lyric Opera. Recent concert engagements include debut appearances with the New York Festival of Song, recitals in Paris with the Mirror Visions Ensemble, and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with the Clarion Music Society.
Mr. Blumberg 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 operatic highlights include his debut with Opera Delaware as John Brooke in Little Women and the role of 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.”
On the concert stage, Mr. Blumberg has been a featured soloist with Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, 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.” As a member of 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 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 Five Boroughs Music Festival in New York City.