Eric Owens
Bass
American bass Eric Owens was recently named as the recipient of the 2003 Marian Anderson Award. In the 2003-4 season, he will make his debut at the Grand Theatre de Geneve as the Voice of Neptune in Idomeneo and will sing his first Leporello in Don Giovanni at Florida Grand Opera for his debut there. He will also return to Minnesota Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto. He will return to the National Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, to the Cleveland Orchestra in Messiah and to the Seattle Symphony in Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem. He will sing Mozart’s Requiem with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (to be recorded) and with the Madison Symphony. He will also sing Rambo in The Death of Klinghoffer with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Messiah for his Pittsburgh Symphony debut. He also sings the Verdi Requiem at the Kennedy Center with the Washington Chorus.
During the 2002/3 season, Eric Owens made his San Francisco Opera debut as Lodovico in Otello and also covered the demanding title role of Messiaen’s St. François d’Assise there. His concert season included returns to the Minnesota Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra. Orchestral debuts included the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony. He appeared in solo recital in Philadelphia and made his New York Philharmonic debut in Porgy and Bess excerpts conducted by Lorin Maazel on tour in Cagliari, Italy.
Eric Owens has made his Royal Opera, Covent Garden debut as Oroveso in Norma. At Houston Grand Opera, he most recently sang Ramfis in Aida. At Los Angeles Opera he has sung Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Ferrando in Il Trovatore and Colline in La Boheme. Other appearances include the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte for his Paris Opera (Bastille) debut; Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with the Washington Opera and Rodolfo in La Sonnambula at the Bordeaux Opera; the King of Scotland in Ariodante at ENO; Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Alidoro at Pittsburgh Opera; Sparafucile in a new production at the Oper der Stadt Köln; Banquo with Opera Pacific and Sarastro and Banquo with the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He sang Collatinus in a highly acclaimed new Christopher Alden production of The Rape of Lucretia at Glimmerglass Opera.
Mr. Owens is a winner of a 1999 ARIA award. He also won the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. Other awards include First Prize in the MacAllister Awards Voice Competition, First Prize in New York's Opera Index Career Grant Auditions, First Prize in the Palm Beach Opera National Voice Competitions, and First Prize in the Mario Lanza Voice Competition.
A native of Philadelphia, Eric Owens studied voice at Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music. He currently studies with Armen Boyajian.
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