Paul Appleby

Regarded as one of the most interesting artists of his generation, American tenor Paul Appleby is a graduate of New York’s Juilliard School and of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Program. Praised for the expressive and interpretive depth of his performances, Appleby has earned a reputation as a fine Mozartian through performances as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and, most recently, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which he debuted to acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera under James Levine.

A regular guest on the stage of The Met, Appleby has performed a diverse range of roles there including Brian in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys (praised by the New York Post as his “star-making performance”), Chevalier de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites under Louis Langrée, both Hylas in Berlioz’s Les Troyens and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni under Fabio Luisi, David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress under James Levine. It was also as Tom Rakewell that Paul Appleby first appeared at Oper Frankfurt, and for his most recent debut at the 2017 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in the highly-acclaimed new production by Simon McBurney, conducted by Eivind Gullberg Jensen, and broadcast live worldwide on ARTE. Other notable performance highlights include Tamino at both Washington National and San Francisco Operas, Don Ottavio at San Diego Opera, both Jonathan in Barrie Kosky’s widely-acclaimed production of Handel’s Saul with Ivor Bolton and Bénédict in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Belmonte under Jérémie Rhorer for Dutch National Opera and Bénédict in concert performance at Opéra National de Paris, conducted by Music Director Philippe Jordan.

A versatile artist, Appleby enjoys a buoyant concert career and has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Mozart’s Requiem under Gustavo Dudamel, the New York Philharmonic in Mozart’s Requiem under Jane Glover, the St Louis Symphony in concert performances of Der fliegende Holländer under David Robertson, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Haydn’s Creation under Manfred Honeck and, most recently, with Bamberger Symphoniker and David Zinman adding Elgar’s masterwork The Dream of Gerontius to his repertoire.

This season, Appleby returns to San Francisco Opera to create the role of Joe Cannon in John Adams’ new opera The Girls of the Golden West, directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Grant Gershon, and joins Dutch National Opera for The Rake’s Progress under Ivor Bolton, alongside concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti.

The recipient of numerous awards and scholarships including the 2011 Richard Tucker Career Grant and George London Foundation Award, Appleby is a passionate advocate of art song, and has performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, the Aspen Music and Caramoor festivals, as part of the Boston Celebrity Series, and for the Marilyn Horne Foundation. He made his debut appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2016 with Malcolm Martineau, and has recorded works by Schubert and Britten as part of The Julliard Sessions Digital Debut series released by EMI Classics.