Michael Weyandt, Baritone

Biography

Lyric baritone Michael Weyandt continues to engage audiences with his “virile, ardent” singing and “notable characterizations” in an increasingly diverse repertoire.

Mr. Weyandt’s recently appeared in the North American premiere of Handel’s first opera, Almira, with Operamission in New York City, described by Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times as “movingly performed”. He also sang debuts with Bourbon Baroque in Rameau’s Les Sauvages and with the new music vocal ensemble Ekmeles in a premiere by New York composer Randy Gibson, and won the Art Song Preservation Society of New York’s Mary Trueman Vocal Arts Competition.

In 2011, Mr. Weyandt appeared with Maestro Lorin Maazel as Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, at Cal Performances in Berkeley, California. He then traveled to Maestro Maazel’s Castleton Festival to reprise his role as Marco in Gianni Schicchi, and appeared as Brother in Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins. He returned to New York to perform Schaunard in Operamission’s La Bohème, followed by his first Count Almaviva in an outdoor performance of Acts I and II of Le nozze di Figaro, also with Operamission. He also premiered a work by composer Clara Latham with New York’s acclaimed Talea Ensemble, appeared in readings for Daniel Asia’s opera The Tin Angel with the Center for Contemporary Opera, and performed Mohammed Fairouz’s 2010 song cycle Furia, for baritone and chamber orchestra, with Ensemble 212.

In 2009-2010, Mr. Weyandt made his role debut as Masetto at the Tanglewood Music Festival, under the direction of Maestro James Levine. He then performed his first Belcore in L’elisir d’amore with Vera Musica, Ltd, followed by his role as Lockit the Jailer in Benjamin Britten’s reworking of The Beggar’s Opera and Marco in Gianni Schicchi, at Maestro Maazel’s Castleton Festival. That year he was also a prizewinner in the Liederkranz Vocal Competition’s General Opera division.

2007-2008 began a series of important engagements, beginning with the United States premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s opera Lost Highway, after the David Lynch film, at Columbia University’s Miller Theater. Mr. Weyandt then performed Guglielmo at the Tanglewood Music Center, with Maestro Levine conducting. During these years, he also began teaching in rural China, Shanxi Province, where he spent four semesters in between engagements.