JESSE BLUMBERG (baritone) is an artist equally at home on opera, concert, and recital stages. His recent engagements include Niobe, Regina di Tebe at Boston Early Music Festival, Bernstein's Mass at London's Royal Festival Hall, and performances with the New York Festival of Song. In 2007 he created the role of Connie Rivers in The Grapes of Wrath (recorded by P.S. Classics) at the Minnesota Opera, and later made his Utah and Pittsburgh Opera debuts in the same production. Since then, he has made debuts in leading and featured roles at Boston Lyric Opera, Annapolis Opera, Opera Delaware, Opera Vivente, and the Boston Early Music Festival.

In concert, Mr. Blumberg has been a featured soloist with American Bach Soloists, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Charlotte Symphony, Clarion Society, and the Berkshire Choral Festival. He has also given the world premieres of two important chamber works: Ricky Ian Gordon's Green Sneakers (recorded by Blue Griffin Recording) and Lisa Bielawa's The Lay of the Love and Death, the former at the Vail Valley Music Festival, and the latter at Alice Tully Hall. He has toured with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Waverly Consort, and given recitals for the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Last season, he and pianist Martin Katz performed Schubert's two monumental song cycles, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, over one weekend at Bargemusic in New York City, and will soon repeat this pairing in Chicago. Mr. Blumberg has been recognized in many song and opera competitions, and in 2008 was awarded Third Prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, becoming its first American prizewinner in over thirty years.

His 2011-2012 engagements include song recitals in New York, Boston, and Paris, performances with New York Festival of Song, Green Mountain Project, and Apollo's Fire, and debuts at Anchorage Opera and Urban Arias in Washington, D.C. He received a Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and undergraduate degrees in History and Music from the University of Michigan. Mr. Blumberg is also the founder and artistic director of Five Boroughs Music Festival in New York City.

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