Andrew Owens

American tenor Andrew Owens has quickly built a reputation as a promising singer of his generation, exhibiting a beautiful Italianate timbre, soaring top notes, and effortless agility. In the 2019-2020 season, Andrew will debut with the Irish National Opera as Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, return to Theater an der Wien for role debuts as Jakob Glock in Der feurige Engel and the Vierter Jude in Salome. Mr. Owens will also sing the tenor solos in Handel’s Messiah with the North Carolina Symphony.

In the 2018-2019 season, Andrew Owens made his Opera Philadelphia debut as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, performed Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Manitoba Opera and covered the role with Glyndebourne Festival. He also returned to the Kammeroper Wien and performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

In the 2017-2018 season, Mr. Owens returned to Seattle Opera, first as Count Almaviva, then as Bénédict in Béatrice et Bénédict, a role debut. He also performed Almaviva at Greensboro Opera, returned to Theater an der Wien for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and debuted at Cincinnati Opera in L’incoronazione di Poppea. Concert highlights included tenor solos in Handel’s Messiah with the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and the Eugene Symphony in Oregon.

In 2016-2017, Andrew Owens returned to the Theater an der Wien for a debut as Mads in Werner Egk’s Peer Gynt. Other house and role debuts included the title role in Rossini’s rarely heard Aureliano in Palmira and Jacquino in Fidelio with the Caramoor Festival, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola at Arizona Opera, Count Almaviva with Opera San Antonio and Virginia Opera, Barbarigo in Verdi’s I due Foscari with the Dutch Radio Filharmonisch Orkest at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Léon in La mère coupable with On Site Opera in New York City. Concert highlights included an evening of music by Schubert and The Beatles with the New York Festival of Song.

Mr. Owens is a graduate of the Junges Ensemble at the Theater an der Wien, where he performed Léon in La mère coupable, Edoardo in La cambiale di matrimonio, Venditore di canzonette in Il Trittico, Der Pfeifer in Mathis der Maler, Gérard in Le comte Ory, Erster Gefangener in Fidelio, Uldino in Attila, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Tito in La clemenza di Tito, Scitalce in Vinci’s Semiramide, Gastone in La Traviata, and Barbarigo in I due Foscari opposite Plácido Domingo.

Mr. Owens made his professional debut in the United States as Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola with Opera Saratoga and with Greensboro Opera. At Theater Magdeburg, he performed Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Camille de Rosillon in Die lustige Witwe. At the Bayerische Staatsoper as part of the Opernstudio, Mr. Owens appeared as Wilhelm in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Sigurd in Sigurd der Drachentöter, and Mücke/Hahn/Specht in Das schlaue Füchslein. Other recent season work includes company and role debuts with Florida Grand Opera as Count Almaviva, a role he reprised later in the season for his company debut with North Carolina Opera. He made his company and role debut with Seattle Opera as Leicester in a new production of Maria Stuarda. He has also joined Dayton Opera in conjunction with the Dayton Philharmonic for a double bill performance, pairing the world premiere of The Book Collector, with Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Concert and symphonic engagements of past seasons include the tenor soloist in The Genius of Mozart at the National Concert Hall, Dublin with the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Cleveland Orchestra, Lukas in Haydn’s The Seasons and First Japanese Envoy in Le Rossignol at the Salzburg Festival, as well as appearances in a Rossini gala concert at the Munich Opera Festival.  He made his New York City recital debut with the New York Festival of Song in a program entitled Spanish Gold: Songs of the Iberian Peninsula at Merkin Hall.

Mr. Owens has had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world’s most prestigious conductors and directors including James Conlon, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bertrand de Billy, Franz Welser-Möst, George Manahan, Moshé Leiser, Patrice Caurier, Peter Konwitschny, Richard Jones, Carlo Montanaro, Keith Warner, David Bösch, Damiano Michieletto, and Riccardo Frizza.

Mr. Owens is an award recipient from the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Mario Lanza Institute, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the George London Foundation, and the Francisco Viñas Competition, where he was the first American to ever win the coveted Zarzuela Prize. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Maryland Opera Studio.  Other training programs include the Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival, Central City Opera, and Music Academy of the West. Mr. Owens is a native of Philadelphia and is currently based in Chicago.