Hailed as a tall, dashing baritone “with a robust sound with ringing top notes,” (NY Times) Grant Youngblood’s opera and orchestral performances have garnered enthusiastic praise for his “smooth lyric baritone voice bringing beautiful shading and color to the score.”
Mr. Youngblood has performed with many major opera companies including The Metropolitan Opera (Capriccio), San Francisco Opera (Sharpless in Madama Butterfly), New York City Opera (Scarpia in Tosca, title role of Don Giovanni, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Germont in La traviata, Escamillo in Carmen); Virginia Opera (the title role of Rigoletto, Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore, Germont in La Traviata, Silvio in Pagliacci); Florida Grand Opera (Silvio in Pagliacci, title role of Rigoletto, Ashby in La Fanciulla del West); Austin Lyric Opera (Germont in La Traviata); Washington National Opera (Dappertutto in Les contes d’Hoffmann); Glimmerglass Opera (Thoäs in Iphigénie en Tauride); and Central City Opera (John Proctor in The Crucible, Germont in La Traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, Olin Blitch in Susannah); Opera Theater of St. Louis and Madison Opera.
Recent engagements for Mr. Youngblood include performances in Madama Butterfly with Florida Grand Opera, the world premier of a song cycle by Jennifer Margaret Barker, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem at Duke University Chapel, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Delaware Symphony, his signature role of Germont in La traviata for Cleveland Opera Theater, and as Michele in Il Tabarro for Opera Delaware. He recently returned to Dayton Opera for Rigoletto, Amonasro in Aida, and Iago in Otello, to both Baltimore Concert Opera and Opera Delaware for the title role of Macbeth, and to the Harrisburg Symphony for Scarpia in Tosca.
Concert engagements have included appearances with the Dallas Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Florida Philharmonic, the Chautauqua Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Naples Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, and the Bucharest Philharmonic, among others. Mr. Youngblood has been praised as well for his exceptionally expressive artistry in recital, with appearances throughout the United States.
Mr. Youngblood’s recent concert engagements have included Verdi’s Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Bach’s Cantata #82 “Ich habe genug” with the Baltimore Symphony, a return engagement with the Dayton Philharmonic in Vaughn Williams’ Sea Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Duke University Chapel Choir, and the Delaware Symphony, Belshazzar’s Feast with the Mineria Orchestra of Mexico City, Carmina Burana with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Charleston Symphony, and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Duke University Chapel and the Princeton University Concert Choir, Copland’s Old American Songs with the Delaware Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall and at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Mozart Requiem with the Master Chorale of Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center, with the Delaware Symphony, and with the Phoenix Symphony under the baton of Robert Moody, the Brahms Requiem with the Boise Philharmonic, and the Anchorage Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony #8 with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem with the North Carolina Master Chorale, and Opera Gala concerts with Orlando Opera, L’Opéra de Montréal, and the Buffalo Philharmonic.
Having performed leading roles with opera companies in America and internationally, Mr. Youngblood made his international concert debut with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in the 1999 Liturgica Festival. He has performed Reynard, Mass, Requiem Canticles, and Canticum Sacrum for a Stravinsky Festival mounted by the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; and he has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in concert performances of Copland’s Old American Songs under the baton of Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Opera-in-concert appearances have included Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Buffalo Philharmonic, as well as Ruggiero in Halevy’s La Juive with Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall.
For more information see https://grantyoungblood.com/