JESSE BLUMBERG (baritone) is an artist equally at home on opera, concert, and recital stages. He recently created the role of Connie Rivers in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera The Grapes of Wrath at the Minnesota Opera, and then made his Utah and Pittsburgh Opera debuts in the same production. Other recent appearances include Silvio in Pagliacci with Annapolis Opera, John Brooke in Little Women with Opera Delaware, and the title role in of Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland with Opera Vivente, for which the Baltimore Sun raved, “Jesse Blumberg commanded the stage, physically and vocally…lighting up the hall with his every appearance.” In 2009 he made his first appearances at the Boston Early Music Festival, singing Adonis in Venus and Adonis and Mercurio in L’incoronazione di Poppea.

In concert, Jesse has been a featured soloist with American Bach Soloists, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, and at the Berkshire Choral Festival. He has also premiered two important chamber works: Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakers and Lisa Bielawa’s The Lay of the Love and Death. He has toured with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Waverly Consort, and has given recitals for the Marilyn Horne Foundation. In 2009 he debuted in Paris with the Mirror Visions Ensemble, and was a guest artist at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.

Having been recognized in several competitions, in 2008 he was awarded Third Prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, becoming its first American prizewinner in over thirty years.

Jesse holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Michigan, and participated in young artist programs at The Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, and the Ravinia Festival. He is also the founder and artistic director of the Five Boroughs Music Festival, a new concert series in New York City.

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