John Matthew Myers
Tenorjohnmatthewmyers.com
Tenor John Matthew Myers, declared an “artist to watch” by Opera News, has rapidly established himself as one of today’s exceptional young voices. He has collaborated with companies such as the Verbier Festival, Santa Fe Opera and LA Opera, and he made his surprise Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in 2017 as Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China conducted by the composer. Myers’s breakout performance was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “brightly lighted to match his declaiming voice.” He has garnered acclaim for his “lovely, warm tenor of considerable promise” (Opera News) and “insightful and beautifully nuanced performances” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram). Myers participated in the Gerdine Young Artist Program with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and has advanced as a finalist in every competition he has entered, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, among others. Myers gave a recital at the Kennedy Center after winning Vocal Arts DC’s 2017 Art Song Competition.
In the 2019-2020 season, Myers joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, covering productions of Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Together with Jennifer Johnson Cano, and accompanied by Chris Cano, Myers performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at Gretna Music in August, shortly after performing Britten and Beethoven in a program of folk songs from around the world at Ravinia.
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 the Decca Gold label in June 2020. That same season, Myers returned to the LA Phil to participate in a new production of John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2 in collaboration with The Industry and under the direction of Yuval Sharon. Myers’s additional recent performances include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at Carnegie Hall with the Canterbury Choral Society, and Ariadne auf Naxos at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, in the role of Bacchus.
Myers’s extensive opera repertoire includes Pollione in Norma, Don Jose in Carmen, Cassio in Otello, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Prince Sinodal in Rubinstein’s The Demon, Trin in La Fanciulla del West, Valerio in Mercadante’s Virginia, Mambre in Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto, Steve Wozniak in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, and Junior/Charlie in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain. 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 his debut at Chicago Opera Theater was as Monsieur Grivet in Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin. Additional credits include Rodolfo in La Bohème, the title role in Bernstein’s Candide, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Agenore in Mozart’s Il Re Pastore, Antinoüs in Fauré’s Pénélope, Fenton in Falstaff, and the Jazz Trio Tenor in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti.
Additional concert appearances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Marcelo Lehninger and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with Nir Kabaretti and Southwest Florida Symphony, opera arias and duets with Allentown Symphony Orchestra alongside soprano Angela Meade, Britten’s War Requiem at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York 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 and other quartets with Performance Santa Fe. 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. On the latter two occasions, is addition, he worked with composer Ben Moore. 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.
Originally from southern California, Myers received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music with additional studies at the Verbier Festival Academy, Chautauqua Institute, and Music Academy of the West.