OPERA MUSIC THEATER INTERNATIONAL
 
 
JAMES K. MCCULLY,  President  &  General Director

Ryan Edwards
Opera Music Theater International
OMTI Lifetime Achievement Award

Ryan Edwards has appeared in major operatic roles throughout North America and Europe. Since his Metropolitan Opera debut in Lucia Di Lammermoor with Beverly Sills, Mr. Edwards' numerous performances with the Met have included the leading baritone roles in Ernani, Don Carlo, and La Forza el Destino. Among his European appearances are Attila and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona, I Puritani at London's Royal Festival Hall, and Caterina Cornaro for L'Opéra de Nice and French National Radio.

Eminent in the Verdi repertory, Mr. Edwards has received international acclaim for his vocal and dramatic interpretations of such roles as Count di Luna in Il Trovatore, Iago in Otello, and the title roles in Nabucco and Macbeth. He has received critics' accolades for such diverse repertoire as Pique Dame at the San Francisco Opera with Rostropovich conducting, Thais with the Greater Miami Opera, and the British premiere of Bloch's Macbeth at London's Royal Festival Hall.

As a concert artist, Mr. Edwards has been featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Edwards has bee heard on radio broadcasts of over twenty operatic productions, including Tosca, Aida, and Otello, as well as such concert works as Carmina Burana, Brahms Requiem, and Mahler's Symphony No. 8.

His performances have been carried internationally by the BBC, ORTF-Paris, Voice of Europe Radio Network, CBC, and the Texaco Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts. On television, he has been seen in CBC's award-winning production of Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans, NET's Brahms Requiem conducted by Andre Previn, and the PBS documentary The Vocal Lion. Mr. Edwards' extensive media credits also include the film of I Pagliacci directed by Henry Butler, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, and the world premiere recording of Caterina Cornaro with Montserrat Caballe and Giacomo Aragall.

As a teacher, lecturer, and author, Mr. Edwards gives master classes throughout the United States and Europe and is a frequent judge for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and other national competitions. He is currently Vice President of the National Opera Association, as well as Artistic Consultant and Master Teacher for the International Opera Academy in Roam and the Marquee Theatre Company. He has written numerous articles on opera and drama and is the author of The Verdi Baritone: Studies in the Development of Dramatic Character (Indiana University Press), A.K.A. Doc: The Oral History of a New Orleans Street Musician (Cadence Jazz Books), and Verdi and Puccini Heroines: Dramatic Characterization in Great Soprano Roles (Scarecrow Press).

Ryan Edwards has received the Opera Music Theater International Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrious career in the history of opera, and his commitment to a new generation of OMTI Emerging Artists, through the OMTI Master Class Series at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and as adjudicator of OMTI International Vocal Competitions.
 

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