Nathan Gunn has made a reputation as one of the most exciting and in-demand baritones of the day.
A frequent interpreter of new works, Mr. Gunn created the role of Father Delura in Peter Eötvös' Love and Other Demons at the 2008 Glyndebourne Opera Festival. This season he creates another new role - Alec Harvey in André Previn's Brief Encounter at the Houston Grand Opera. This season also sees his debut at the Los Angeles Opera as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and his returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles and the Opera Company of Philadelphia as Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucrecita.
Mr. Gunn has appeared in internationally renowned opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. His many roles include the title roles in Billy Budd, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Hamlet, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette and Ottone in L'incoronazione di Poppea. He also created the role of Clyde Griffiths in the world premiere of Tobias Picker's new opera, An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera.
Mr. Gunn has recently ventured outside the standard opera repertoire with appearances in semi-staged performances of Camelot with the New York Philharmonic (broadcast live on PBS's Great Performances) and Showboat at Carnegie Hall.
Also a distinguished concert performer, Mr. Gunn has appeared the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Rundfunkorchster, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The many conductors with whom he has worked with include, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Mark Wigglesworth.
A frequent recitalist, Mr. Gunn has been presented in recital at Alice Tully Hall by both Lincoln Center's Art of the Song Series and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, and by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall, Cal Performances, the Schubert Club, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Vocal Arts Society in Washington, DC, the University of Chicago, the Krannert Center, the Wigmore Hall, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. As a student, he performed in series of recitals with his teacher and mentor John Wustman that celebrated the 200th anniversary of Franz Schubert's birth.
Mr. Gunn's most recent solo album, Just Before Sunrise, was released on the Sony/BMG Masterworks label in August 2007. Other recordings include Peter Grimes with Sir Colin Davis and London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live!), which was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award; Il Barbiere di Siviglia (SONY Classics), Kullervo with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Telarc), and his debut album, a collection of American songs entitled American Anthem (EMI). He also starred as Buzz Aldrin in Man on the Moon, an opera written specifically for television and broadcast on the BBC in the UK in December 2006. The program was recently awarded the Golden Rose Award for Opera at the Montreux Festival in Lucerne.
Mr. Gunn was the recipient of the first annual Beverly Sills Artist Award, and was recently awarded the Pittsburgh Opera Renaissance Award. He is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Program and was the winner of the 1994 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition. In addition, he is also an alumnus of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he still makes his home, and was recently awarded a professorship by the university.
