Eric Owens

Acclaimed for his commanding stage presence and inventive artistry, Grammy Award®-winning American bass-baritone <strong>Eric Owens</strong> has carved a unique place in the contemporary opera world as both an esteemed interpreter of classic works and a champion of new music. Equally at home in concert, recital and opera performances, Owens continues to bring his powerful poise, expansive voice and instinctive acting faculties to stages around the world.

The 2010-2011 season saw Owens’ Ring cycle debut as Alberich in Wagner’s Das Rheingold in Robert Lepage’s new production at the Metropolitan Opera, conducted by James Levine on the opening night of the Metropolitan’s season. Universally praised, Owens’s performance was considered a standout of the production. The 2010-2011 season also saw Owens as Ramfis in Aida at San Francisco Opera, and in the title role in Peter Sellars’s new Hercules at Lyric Opera of Chicago. On the concert stage, Owens appeared as Lodovico in Otello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Riccardo Muti in performances at Symphony Center in Chicago and Carnegie Hall in New York.

During the 2011-2012 season, Owens appeared in recital with Robert Spano at Zankel Hall, the centerpiece of a coast-to-coast recital tour that also features pianist Craig Rutenberg. He returned to Carnegie Hall twice more in the spring: with the Boston Symphony in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and as Jochanaan in a concert version of Salome with the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. At the Metropolitan Opera, Owens returns as the vengeful Alberich in the final installments of Robert Lepage's new Ring Cycle, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, both of which will be broadcast live in high definition to cinemas around the world. He also joins Pinchas Zukerman and the National Arts Centre Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem, and reprises his role as The Storyteller in A Flowering Tree with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony. During the summer, Owens will serve as Artist-in-Residence at the Glimmerglass Festival, where he appears in Aïda, Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars, and in a solo evening of cabaret and popular song.

Owens has created an uncommon niche for himself in the ever-growing body of contemporary opera works through his determined tackling of new and challenging roles. He received great critical acclaim for portraying the title role in the world premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel with the Los Angeles Opera, and again at the Lincoln Center Festival, in a production directed and designed by Julie Taymor. Owens also enjoys a close association with John Adams, for whom he created the role of General Leslie Groves in the world premiere of Doctor Atomic at the San Francisco Opera, and of the Storyteller in the world premiere of A Flowering Tree at Peter Sellars’s New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna and later with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Owens made his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut under the baton of David Robertson in Adams’s Nativity oratorio El Niño.

Owens’s career operatic highlights include his San Francisco Opera debut in Otello conducted by Donald Runnicles; his Royal Opera, Covent Garden, debut in Norma; Aida at Houston Grand Opera; Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Bohème at Los Angeles Opera; Die Zauberflöte for his Paris Opera (Bastille) debut; and Ariodante and L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the English National Opera. He sang Collatinus in a highly acclaimed Christopher Alden production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at Glimmerglass Opera. A former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Owens has sung Sarastro, Mephistopheles in Faust, Frère Laurent, Angelotti in Tosca, and Aristotle Onassis in the world premiere of Jackie O (available on the Argo label) with that company. Owens is featured on two Telarc recordings with the Atlanta Symphony: Mozart’s Requiem and scenes from Strauss’ Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten, both under the baton of Donald Runnicles. He is featured on the Nonesuch Records release of A Flowering Tree. In addition to great popular and critical acclaim, Owens has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2003 Marian Anderson Award, a 1999 ARIA award, and second prize in the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition.

A native of Philadelphia, Owens began his musical training as a pianist at the age of six, followed by formal oboe study at age eleven under Lloyd Shorter of the Delaware Symphony and Louis Rosenblatt of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He later studied voice while an undergraduate at Temple University, and then as a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music. He currently studies with Armen Boyajian. He serves on the Board of Trustees of both the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Astral Artistic Services.