Soloman Howard made his LA Opera debut in 2014 as Doctor Grenville in La Traviata and returned in 2018 as the Friar in Don Carlo. A graduate of Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, a program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Mr. Howard garners high praise from the press for his vivid performances on the great opera and concert stages of the world. The bass’ voice is described as “sonorous” by The New York Times, “superhuman” by The Denver Post, and “a triumph” by The Guardian.
Soloman Howard’s 2017/18 season features leading international opera house debuts on three continents: he sings Timur in Turandot for San Francisco Opera conducted by Nicola Luisotti; the King in Aida at the Teatro Real; and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni for the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Chile. Other notable opera performances of the season include Aida at the Washington National Opera in a production by Francesca Zambello, Rigoletto at North Carolina Opera, and Madama Butterfly at Santa Fe Opera. In concert, the bass sings his first Hunding in Die Walküre at the Miami Music Festival and joins Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra on tour in Asia for performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
The bass returned to the Metropolitan Opera last season for performances of Aida conducted by Marco Armiliato and Daniele Rustioni. Highlights of the season also included performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra and also with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in debut appearances on many of Europe’s most famous stages including El Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Musikverein in Vienna.
Highlights of the recent past include performances of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, La traviata at LA Opera under the baton of James Conlon, The Magic Flute and Macbeth at the Glimmerglass Festival, and the title role of Approaching Ali at North Carolina Opera and the Washington National Opera. For the Washington National Opera, the bass bowed as Fafner in both Das Rheingold and Siegfried, in Ring cycles directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by Philippe Auguin and he also joined that company for leading roles in productions of The Magic Flute, Show Boat, Don Giovanni, and Nabucco; he was heralded for the roles of Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr., in the world premiere of the revised edition of Appomattox composed by Philip Glass in a production by Tazwell Thompson.
Soloman Howard debuted with the Santa Fe Opera as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni conducted by John Nelson, with l’Opéra national de Bordeaux as Jacopo Fiesco in a new production of Simon Boccanegra conducted by Paul Daniel, and with Kentucky Opera as Banco in Macbeth. Notable concert performances include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Gustavo Dudamel, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic on tour celebrating the commercial CD release of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that the bass recorded with Mr. Dudamel in Caracas, Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht at Carnegie Hall with Kent Tritle and the Oratorio Society of New York, Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier – opposite Renée Fleming – with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and the Fauré Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the title role of Porgy and Bess with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time at New York’s Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.
The Anti-Defamation League presented Soloman Howard with their “Making a Difference Award” in summer 2016 for raising awareness of voting rights though his performances of Appomattox at the Kennedy Center and for bringing opera into the larger community. He is a proud graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and of Morgan State University. (SolomanHoward.com)
