Tenor Alok Kumar makes his first LA Opera appearances in 2019, as Ramses in the Cathedral production of Moses, then as Gastone in La Traviata.

In the 2018/19 season, he debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in The Girl of the Golden West and covered the role of Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi. He then collaborates with composer Ricky Ian Gordon and director Bartlett Sher in developing Gordon’s new opera Intimate Apparel, a co-commission by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater. He will return to the Met in the 2019/20 season as the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier and as the Steersman in The Flying Dutchman.

Most recently, Mr. Kumar made several company debuts including at Covent Garden with the Royal Opera House and the London Philharmonic Orchestra creating the role of Chyavana in the world premiere of Ravi Shankar’s Sukanya, Don José in Carmen with Michigan Opera Theater, Florida Grand Opera and Musica Viva in Hong Kong, a reprisal of the Duke of Mantua in Palm Beach Opera’s production of Rigoletto and the Barber in New York City Opera’s production of Respighi’s La Campana Sommersa.

Notable events from previous seasons include Macduff in Macbeth under the baton of Emmanuel Plasson, debuts at Canada’s le Domaine Forget International Music Festival and at the Sanibel Music Festival in Florida, a debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, a concert of French operatic excerpts in France under the direction of Michel Plasson, his portrayal of Pinkerton in the excerpted love duet from Madama Butterfly with the Cincinnati Pops/Cincinnati Opera led by John Morris Russell and a debut as the tenor soloist in the New York premiere of Stephen Paulus’ To Be Certain of the Dawn at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. In the recital forum, Mr. Kumar unveiled a solo recital of Romani-influenced art song at the Ware Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

An avid proponent of new musical works, Mr. Kumar most recently collaborated with composer Robert Paterson at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) performing works which included the world premier of Paterson's Spring Songs. He premiered the tenor solo in the Thomas Cabaniss cantata My Song is a Fire and collaborated with director Scott Schwarz and librettist Marc Aceto in Jeffrey Stock’s musical adaptation of E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View. Mr. Kumar recorded the role of Jesus of Nazareth in Marcos Galvany’s operatic tableaux Oh My Son with members of the Washington National Symphony and Washington National Opera Orchestra, members of the Washington National Opera Chorus and the Washington National Cathedral Children’s Choir. He later performed the role of Jesus in the work’s European premiere in Spain and reprised the role at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Mr. Kumar has appeared with the Santa Fe Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Opera Delaware, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and Portland Opera Repertory Theater among others and has most frequently portrayed leading roles in the operas of Bizet, Puccini and Verdi.

As a solo concert artist, he has appeared with symphonies and orchestras in Spain, California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Massachusetts, including in Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops for the Richard Rodgers Centennial and in Sanders Theater with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Federico Cortese. Mr. Kumar’s festival appearances include the Italy’s Spoleto Festival, Canada’s Le Domaine Forget International Music Festival, Florida’s Sanibel Music Festival and Colorado’s Crested Butte Music Festival.
(AlokKumarTenor.com)