American bass-baritone Alan Held has established himself as one of the leading singing actors of his generation, with a career spanning more than four decades and a repertoire of more than 80 roles. He has appeared in major roles at many of the world’s foremost opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra national de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, and Canadian Opera Company.
Recent engagements have included a return to Carnegie Hall for Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder with the American Symphony Orchestra; Scarpia in Tosca with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and at Chautauqua Institution; Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion with Five City Baroque Foundation; Daniel Webster in The Mother of Us All at Chautauqua; and Act III of Die Walküre in concert with Christine Goerke at Detroit Opera. He also returned to Washington National Opera as Scarpia, continuing a longstanding relationship with the company, and at the Miami Music Festival both directed Act III of Die Walküre and sang Wotan.
Other recent seasons have brought appearances at the Sydney Opera House in Peter Grimes with David Robertson and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; with The Cleveland Orchestra in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen in Cleveland, Vienna, and Luxembourg, as well as concert performances of Tristan und Isolde; and with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in The Cunning Little Vixen. He returned to Wiener Staatsoper as Jochanaan in Salome and for his role debut as Caspar in a new production of Der Freischütz, and joined Christine Goerke, Simon O’Neill, and Eric Owens for highlights from Der Ring des Nibelungen at Wolf Trap with the National Symphony Orchestra.
Held’s extensive repertoire includes Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Amfortas in Parsifal, Scarpia in Tosca, the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Jochanaan in Salome, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Don Pizarro in Fidelio, Orest in Elektra, Captain Balstrode in Peter Grimes, and the title roles of Gianni Schicchi, Der fliegende Holländer, Wozzeck, and Cardillac.
On the concert stage, he has appeared with leading ensembles including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Orchestre de Paris, as well as at the Salzburg and Tanglewood festivals and the BBC Proms. He has collaborated with conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Kirill Petrenko, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Franz Welser-Möst, Sir Simon Rattle, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Jeffrey Tate.
Held’s discography and video recordings include Salome, Rusalka, Der Freischütz, Hänsel und Gretel, Fidelio, Das Rheingold, and Cardillac. Among them are Beethoven’s Fidelio as Don Pizarro with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle for EMI Classics; the title role in Cardillac from Opéra national de Paris with Kent Nagano on Harmonia Mundi; and Weber’s Der Freischütz with Marek Janowski and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony on Pentatone.
His honors include the Birgit Nilsson Prize, the Dora Mavor Moore Award, an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Millikin University, and five nominations for the Richard Tucker Award. In 2026, he received the Arts Legacy Award as part of the Kansas Governor’s Arts Awards.
A native of Washburn, Illinois, Held received his training at Millikin University and Wichita State University. A noted teacher, clinician, stage director, and conductor, he presented annual guest master classes at Yale University for nearly 20 years. He currently serves at Wichita State University as Area Coordinator of Voice, Director of Opera, Professor, and the Ann and Dennis Ross Faculty of Distinction in Opera. His students have appeared on opera-company rosters around the world and participated in leading young artist programs including the Lindemann Young Artist Program, Ryan Opera Center, and Merola Opera Program.
Held joined the voice faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music with the 2025–26 academic year. He also serves as Director of Sacred Music for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, Kansas.
2026-2027
