Corey McKern, baritone
Santa Fe Opera Apprentice in 2001 & 2004
Award-winning baritone Corey McKern is receiving much attention and acclaim in his promising young career. Of a recent performance at Santa Fe Opera in 2007, the Santa Fe New Mexican said, "Corey McKern's resolute, robust-voiced and rambunctious Marcello, a perfect picture of a wannabe Parisian painter, was one of the best I've ever heard."
In the fall 2007, he made his New York City Opera debut as Morales in Carmen and Silvio in I Pagliacci (cover). He will continue at City Opera in 2008 with Papageno, also performing the same role with Arizona Opera and Tulsa Opera, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Cleveland, Silvio in I Pagliacci with the Augusta Opera, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Birmingham and Arizona Opera, Pish-Tush in The Mikado with Arizona Opera, Marcello in La boheme with Nashville Opera, Valentin in Faust with Opera Carolina, and a Valentine's Day concert with the Mobile Opera.
Most recent operatic engagements include a return to the Santa Fe Opera as Marcello in La bohème, Pallante in Agrippina and 1st Shepherd in Daphne, as well as Bizet's Doctor Miracle for Santa Fe's new chamber series, Silvio in I Pagliacci with Arizona Opera and Central City Opera, Pilot in The Little Prince with Tulsa Opera, Danilo in The Merry Widow with Mobile Opera, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with Pensacola Opera, Marcello in La bohème with Augusta Opera, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Nevada Opera, and Valentin in Faust with Shreveport Opera. As house favorite at Opera Omaha, Mr. McKern has performed John Brooke in Little Women, Ping in Turandot, Schaunard, and both Morales and Le Dancaire in Carmen. With the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, he performed his first Papageno and Marcello.
Also an active concert performer, he recently made his Carnegie Hall debut as the baritone soloist in the Faure Requiem, as well as performances with the New Choral Society in Handel's Messiah and Orff's Carmina Burana, which he also performed with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. His oratorio credits include Vaughan Williams's Dona Nobis Pacem and a concert of operetta highlights with the Indianapolis Symphony.
Mr. McKern is a former grant recipient from the Sullivan Foundation, as well as the first place winner of Opera Birmingham, Shreveport Opera, and Mobile Opera competitions of 2005. He holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University, and Bachelor of Music Education from Mississippi State University.