For the 2012/13 season, bass-baritone RYAN MCKINNY (Count Monterone) sings the world premiere of Der Sandmann at Theater Basel in a Christof Loy production, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde at Houston Grand Opera, Melot in Tristan und Isolde at Canadian Opera Company, and Jochanaan in Salome at Palm Beach Opera. He will also debut at the Glimmerglass Festival in his first performances of Der fliegende Holländer and with the London Philharmonia in Shostakovich’s Orango under Esa-Pekka Salonen. He was recently the first recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Prize for Wagnerian singing at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition and the Kirsten Flagstad/George London Award from the George London Foundation. He also represented the United States in the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and was a Grand Finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions as featured in The Audition.

McKinny’s recent roles include Lt. Ratcliffe in Billy Budd (Metropolitan Opera), Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia (Houston Grand Opera), Jochanaan in Salome (New Orleans Opera), Peter in Hänsel und Gretel (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Tiridate in Radamisto (English National Opera), Escamillo in Carmen (Semperoper Dresden and Hamburg State Opera), Amfortas in Parsifal (Deutsche Oper am Rhein), Leone in Tamerlano (Los Angeles Opera), and Oedipus Rex for his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen.