John Matthew Myers
John Matthew Myers has garnered acclaim for his “lovely, warm tenor of considerable promise” (Opera News), “insightful and beautifully nuanced performances” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram), and “remarkable emotional depth and range” (Opera Magazine) in recent collaborations with companies such as the New York Philharmonic, Verbier Festival, Santa Fe Opera and LA Opera. Myers made his surprise Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in 2017 as Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China conducted by the composer. In 2023, he reprised the role with the Opera National de Paris under Gustavo Dudamel, “handling Mao’s tessitura with seeming ease and limning a convincing portrayal both imposing and humorous” (Classical Voice North America).
Highlights of Myers’ 2023-2024 season include the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall under Maestro Fabio Biondi, debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck and the Rhode Island Philharmonic with Patrick Dupré Quigley singing Handel’s Messiah, performing the roles of Der Tenor/Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos at Teatro La Fenice, Froh in Das Rheingold with the LA Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, and tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Santa Barbara and Oregon Symphonies. He debuts at Teatro alla Scala singing Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings conducted by Vakhtang Kakhidze with Cameristi della Scala.
Recently, Myers has covered roles for the Metropolitan Opera in productions of Britten’s Peter Grimes, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, Tchaikovsky’s Queens of Spades and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. The 2021-2022 season included singing an Offstage Voice in the Metropolitan Opera’s premiere of Brett Dean's Hamlet.
Myers made his New York Philharmonic debut in the 2018-2019 season in the world premiere of David Lang’s fully staged opera, prisoner of the state. Directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, prisoner of the state was released as an album on Decca Gold in June 2020. His debut solo album Desiderium with pianist Myra Huang was released on AVIE Records in 2022.
Highlights of Myers’ extensive opera repertoire include Pollione in Norma (LA Opera), Cavaradossi in Tosca (Arizona Opera), Don Jose in Carmen (Music Academy of the West), Cassio in Otello (Portland Summer Fest), Flavio in Bellini’s Norma (Teatro Regio di Parma), Trin in La Fanciulla del West (Santa Fe Opera), Valerio in Mercadante's Virginia (Wexford Festival Opera), Der Kaiser in Die Frau Ohne Schatten (San Francisco Opera), Aufide in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon (Collegiate Chorale/Carnegie Hall), Steve Wozniak in the workshop of Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Santa Fe Opera), and Junior/Charlie in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain (Santa Fe Opera). As a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Myers sang Duca di Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Prince Sinodal in Rubinstein’s The Demon, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the Prince in Dvorak’s Rusalka. He has collaborated with Long Beach Opera to perform Michael Gordon’s Van Gogh, Gabriela Ortiz’s Camelia la Tejana: Unicamente La Verdad, Stewart Copeland’s Tell-Tale Heart, and a co-production of Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin with Chicago Opera Theater. He also sang in John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2 in with the LA Phil in collaboration with The Industry and Yuval Sharon.
Myers has been seen as a soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Canterbury Choral Society, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Mozart’s Requiem with Southwest Florida Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall and in the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music with the Wexford Festival Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Fairfield Chorale, and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes with Performance Santa Fe. He recently performed Dvořák’s Stabat Mater at the Grant Park Music Festival, about which the Chicago Tribune wrote, “He astonished from his thrilling entrance…and kept listeners at the edge of their seats whenever he appeared, his voice a thing of poignance and power.”
Myers has had the pleasure of performing in concert with composer Ricky Ian Gordon on three occasions: at the Chautauqua Institute Music Festival, Opera America's Salon Series: “Exploring American Voices,” and “Cliburn at the Modern,” the Van Cliburn Foundation's contemporary music series in Fort Worth, TX. He was a soloist with the Mark Morris Dance Group in their performances of The Muir, and with the American Musical Theatre Ensemble in September Songs: The Legacy of Kurt Weill. He has sung in concert with the Allentown Symphony alongside soprano Angela Meade and was awarded a recital at the Kennedy Center as a winner of Vocal Arts DC’s 2017 Art Song Competition.
Originally from southern California, Myers received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, was a Gerdine Young Artist with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera, an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy, and a fellow with Music Academy of the West. He won Third Prize and the Richard Tauber Prize for the best interpretation of Schubert Lieder at the 2022 Wigmore Hall Bollinger International Song Competition.