Tenor Benjamin Bliss

Benjamin Bliss

Chapman alumnus Ben Bliss (BFA Film Production, Vocal Performance Minor ’08), a tenor with New York’s famed Metropolitan Opera, has been named a recipient of the prestigious Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award for 2016. The presentation ceremony will take place on March 2, 2016 at Lincoln Center.

According to his website, Bliss is a recent graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. He received the Mozart and Plácido Domingo awards at the 2015 Francisco Viñas International Competition in Barcelona, and won 2nd place overall. He was also awarded first prize in the 2014 Gerda Lissner and Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation competitions, as well as a Sara Tucker and Sullivan Foundation grant. Bliss is also the 2013 Operalia Don Plácido Domingo Sr. Zarzuela prizewinner.

In the Met’s 2015-2016 season, Bliss performed  as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, conducted by James Levine, and will make his European debut in the same role with Glyndeborne Festival on tour. He will also return as a principal artist to Los Angeles Opera, where he will appear as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte under the baton of James Conlon, as well as to Des Moines Metro Opera as Belmonte. On the concert stage, Bliss will debut with the New York Philharmonic singing Tony in Bernstein’s West Side Story Concert Suite No. 1 with Alan Gilbert, Haydn’s Creation and Cassio in Otello at the Cincinnati May Festival with James Conlon, and in holiday concerts with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Lexington Philharmonic. Bliss will also perform in Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Recital series with pianist Lachlan Glen, and with the New York Choral Society in Handel’s Israel in Egypt at Carnegie Hall. Bliss concludes the season with his company debut at Santa Fe Opera as Flamand in a new production of Capriccio directed by Tim Albery.

UPDATE:

Bliss will appear as Tamino in LA Opera‘s upcoming production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, conducted by James Conlon, and opening February 13, 2016.