American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel has established an international career in opera and concert repertoire, with performances at leading opera companies and orchestras throughout North America and Europe. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, he was a member of the Oper Frankfurt ensemble before launching a career that has taken him to the Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Komische Oper Berlin, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Canadian Opera Company, and many other leading companies.
Highlights of the 2026/27 season include a return to Houston Grand Opera in Die Zauberflöte (Sprecher), a debut with The Dallas Opera in The Cunning Little Vixen (Harašta), performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Kansas City Symphony under Jane Glover and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Tosca (Angelotti) with The Minnesota Orchestra, and the opening concert of Boston Baroque’s inaugural season under Music Director Marc Minkowski, performing Haydn’s The Seasons.
Cedel is particularly acclaimed for his performances of Handel, with repertoire including the title roles in Hercules, Riccardo Primo, Serse, and Solomon, as well as Rinaldo (Argante), Rodelinda (Garibaldo), and Ariodante (Il Re di Scozia), in addition to frequent performances of Messiah. Additional repertoire includes Don Giovanni (title role and Leporello), Le nozze di Figaro (title role), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bottom), La bohème (Colline), and Il barbiere di Siviglia (Basilio). He created the role of Dan Brown in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, subsequently reprising the role at the Metropolitan Opera. Opera News praised his Handel singing for its “stunning accuracy and beauty of tone,” while Alex Ross of The New Yorker described Cedel as “an ample, agile bass-baritone…destined for stardom.”
An active concert artist, Cedel has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The English Concert, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Music of the Baroque, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. His collaborations include conductors Harry Bicket, Nicholas Carter, Charles Dutoit, Jane Glover, Vladimir Jurowski, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Marc Minkowski, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Dalia Stasevska.
Cedel is the recipient of the Richard Tucker Career Grant and Sara Tucker Study Grant, First Prize in the George London Foundation Competition, the Grand Finals Prize at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, and a Sullivan Foundation Award.
2026-2027
